Category: ethics

Empowering Olympic, Paralympic and Amateur Athletes Act

It’s now law.

The act grants Congress the power to remove members of the USOPC Board of Directors, while it would have the ability to decertify national governing bodies in the country if they fail to adhere to requirements.

The act would also require the USOPC to give the US Center for SafeSport $20 million (£15.5 million/€17 million) in annual funding to do its work more effectively.

The act establishes safeguards designed to protect amateur athletes from abuse from coaches and other officials within Olympic and Paralympic sports. …

The bill is expected to see the formation of a 16-member commission on the State of the U.S. Olympics and Paralympics. …

At least eight members would have to be current or former Olympic or Paralympic athletes.

Inside the Games

I’m certain at least one gymnast will be included on the commission as this whole process was started because USA Gymnastics mishandled the case of their criminal doctor.

Gymnastics during the pandemic

Gymnastics HQ ran a little survey of American Gyms to see where they are at at this stage. Click through to see results.

HOW GYM LIFE HAS CHANGED DURING THE PANDEMIC: SURVEY RESULTS

USAG online competitions

Excellent!

USA Gymnastics announced multiple ways to hold competitive gymnastics events for the 2020-21 season, including virtual event sanctions and a free platform for hosting virtual meets …

… on a number of different platforms, including Zoom, Skype and Google Meet, ensuring that even more athletes are able to compete despite complications created by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

For the 2020-21 season, USA Gymnastics will also be providing members free access to the Flyp10 virtual meet platform, which is integrated with USA Gymnastics’ Meet Reservation system. Using Flyp10, participants will be able to upload HD-quality recordings of their real-time performances for immediate scoring by judges and keep track of rolling scores and placement throughout the meet. …

To help meet directors facilitate virtual competitions, USA Gymnastics has created Virtual Playbooks for all 5 disciplines.

Cortland & Brockport 2021 competitions cancelled

Will other Universities come to this decision?

I’m worried.

Outbreaks are likely at Colleges and Universities. For example, State University of New York Oneonta has had more than 700 students and faculty test positive for COVID-19. Student population is about 3000.

Gymnastics called ‘legal child abuse’

Michiel de Hoog writes about sport for De Correspondent in Netherlands.

Though no Gymnastics expert, de Hoog put together a very damning article on the culture of elite women’s Gymnastics.

There are some specifics overstated. No examples at all of any elite gymnasts who feel they didn’t suffer child abuse. But his main point is hard to refute.

Best read it for yourself.

Women’s gymnastics has a decades-old, reform-resistant culture of abuse. It’s hard to see a solution when child abuse isn’t an exception in women’s gymnastics – it’s the logical consequence.

Why women’s gymnastics is legal child abuse

Jane Allen retires from British Gymnastics

Hopefully this will help BG make the cultural changes called for by many of their top athletes.

After over ten years with British Gymnastics, Jane Allen MBE is to retire as Chief Executive in December. An interim Chief Executive will be announced in the near future.  …

british-gymnastics.org

Sports Parents Promise

  As a positive sports parent, I make these promises to my child(ren): 

 Star I promise to listen to you if you have any concerns about your sport 

 Star I promise to learn how your club keeps you safe and what I can do to help 

Star I promise to make sure that I set a good example and support you (and your teammates) in a positive way 

https://thecpsu.org.uk/parents/sports-parents-promise/

U of Alaska Anchorage UPDATE

There’s still hope.

Interim Coach Marie-Sophie Boggasch confirms that University of Alaska Anchorage Gymnastics will be saved if $888,000 (half in cash, half in pledges) is raised by February 15, 2021.

The Collegiate Gymnastics Growth Initiative / Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association organized a GoFundMe: charity.gofundme.com/saveuaagymnastics

On that site, there are a couple other links that can take people to the pledge form (ideally we only have to raise half of the amount if everyone could potentially contribute the same via a pledge for next year) and also to UAA directly for donations of $1,000 or more.

About our program:

– Consistently volunteers the highest amount of hours among any UAA athletic team (last year: 554h between 18 team members)

– 2019-2020 team GPA: 3.64

– Several first-generation college students

– Broke 21 school records in the last 2 seasons

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.