Category: ethics

documentary – Becoming Sam Phillips

Becoming Sam Phillips debuts March 13, 2025.

The decorated gymnast made his name as the only out athlete at Nebraska, a Big Ten school known for its iconic athletic program. But as the flagship university of a deep red state, Phillips quickly found the school wasn’t interested in promoting inclusion, or the visibility he was trying to create for the LGBTQ+ community. …

The athletic department refused to share Phillips’ viral video for National Coming Out Day, and his coaches’ feelings about queer advocacy ranged from apathy to downright contempt. Phillips says one of the team’s volunteer coaches proudly called himself a homophobe, while deriding Phillips with an insulting nickname: “brown sugar.” …

Gymnast Sam Phillips opens up about his new doc & being the only out athlete at a Big Ten school

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day (IWD) commemorates women’s fight for equality and liberation along with the women’s rights movement. International Women’s Day gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

How to Save Youth Sports: A Manifesto

Parents in 2025 are worried about peer pressure, teen mental health, teen addiction to screens, and even childhood ​obesity.

As coaches, our goal is that kids get hooked on fitness and achievement through sport. Being an athlete is one of the best ways to grow up.

Here’s a terrific article by Steve Magness for your parents:

How to Save Youth Sports: A Manifesto

Sports are a great way to establish basic psychological needs: autonomy; mastery and skill development; mattering and belonging

Nobody remembers (or cares) if you won your first-grade league championship.

Youth sports should be about having a space for kids to challenge themselves healthily and explore their interests and limits.

Youth sports should be a place where kids can learn how to be a good teammate, navigate conflict, and develop tools to regulate their emotions.

Perhaps most of all, youth sports should be about developing a positive relationship with physical health and fitness. …

A.I. generated image

UCLA Pride Meet

Highlighting love, inclusivity and acceptance! 💗🫶 #PrideMeet #GoBruins

UCLA is one of the best College Gymnastics teams for supporting one and ALL.

Maryland – ALL are created equal

With minorities under relentless attack by ReTrumplican politicians, it’s terrific to see teams like Maryland be strong allies.

Plus — these Leos are awesome.

Happy Valentine’s Day to ALL.

Viktoria Listunova to compete in Italy

Viktoria Listunova is an Olympic gold medalist in team with Russia at the Tokyo Olympics. And the 2021 European Champion.

On 18 March, 2022, Listunova participated in the Moscow rally in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And was banned from international FIG competition.

But she can compete in non-FIG competitions.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Rhythmic judge banned – Evangelia Trikomiti

I’d stopped paying much attention to Rhythmic over the years due to blatant corruption.

But it seemed that Discipline had cleaned up their system, somewhat.

… Perhaps not.

A Cypriot rhythmic gymnastics judge has been banned for four years for manipulating scores to help her compatriot qualify for the Paris Olympics.

The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) found that judge Evangelia Trikomiti altered the scores at the European Championships to ensure Vera Tugolukova clinched the final European qualifying spot for the Olympics. …

European Gymnastics said it would consult with lawyers before considering an appeal.

The Cyprus Gymnastics Federation said it would “thoroughly review” the ruling.

BBC – Judge banned for helping compatriot reach Olympics

SafeSport for children

Canadian SafeSport Gym Education … creates documentary style videos to share what safe sport means from real people.

Link to SafeSport Gym Education Website

Here is their VIDEO for young children.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

NEW – NCAA Judges Evaluation System

This season, for the first time, judges are being evaluated on their scores compared with a panel reviewing routines.

I ASSuME the judges over-scoring routines Florida v Georgia, Jan. 24th, 2025 will be evaluated severely.

For 2025 there may be no consequences for being off target score. But hopefully that happens sooner rather than later. Some are deliberately giving impossible scores because there is so little accountability.

To learn more, listen to an interesting interview with panelists on the All Things Gymnastics Podcast.

In your favourite Podcast player, search for:

“Scoreboard: Introducing NCAA Gymnastics’ New Judges Evaluation System“