A day after former USA Gymnastics CEO Steve Penny was arrested following a grand jury indictment for tampering with evidence in the investigation of Larry Nassar, the New York Times has a new report detailing how Penny behaved with the FBI as its agents looked into reports from gymnasts about the former national team…
Former USA Gymnastics president and CEO Steve Penny has been arrested after a grand jury indicted him for tampering with evidence related to the investigation into years of sexual abuse of athletes by former national team doctor Larry Nassar, according to officials in Walker County, Texas. He was indicted by a Walker…
Since coming forward last year as a survivor of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman has become a prominent voice and advocate for victims of sexual violence. Now her passionate words from her victim impact statement are being used—presumably without her consent—to promote…
When I wrote about the first anniversary of Rachael Denhollander coming forward in the Indianapolis Star about how Larry Nassar sexually abused her under the guise of medical treatment, I struggled with the headline. I generally do, but the story kicked up a bit of a debate over whether the headline should center…
Disgraced former Michigan State and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar lost today on another one of his requests for a new sentencing hearing, this one in Eaton County, Mich. Like in the case filed against him in Ingham County, multiple women in Eaton said Nassar sexually abused them under the guise of medical…
Russian gymnastics legend Svetlana Khorkina, when she’s not busy talking about whether American gymnasts are doping and what she really thinks of WADA (hint: she likened them to a certain WWII Axis power), can be found lending her expertise to the Russian speedskating team—she’s now listed as a “specialist” for the…
According to a press release from Michigan attorney general Bill Schuette’s office, former Michigan State women’s gymnastics coach Kathie Klages has been charged with two counts of lying to investigators.
Have you ever watched Simone Biles do gymnastics and thought, “I need to watch her again, this time in super-slo-mo so I can really appreciate what I just watched”? If so, you’re in luck, because we’ve slowed down Biles’ performance from this weekend’s national championships (where she routed the field by more than…
BOSTON — Simone Biles ascended to the top step of the podium a lot last night. Five times, to be exact. In only her second competition since the Olympic Games in Rio, Biles swept all five titles at the 2018 national championships. She placed first on vault, on uneven bars, on balance beam, in floor exercise, and of…
BOSTON — Kerry Perry, the president and CEO of USA Gymnastics, finally faced the media at the 2018 national gymnastics championships today. Perry has appeared before two Senate subcommittee hearings and done a few of brief, very limited teleconferences with journalists, but this was her first, in-depth Q&A with…
BOSTON — There are a lot of things you might miss when you watch a sport on television instead of viewing it live. In sports like figure skating, it might be difficult to really get how fast the skaters are zipping around the rink. Ditto for the speed at which NBA players move on the court when you watch a game in…
Former U.S. Olympic and current UCLA gymnasts Kyla Ross and Madison Kocian have added their voices to the over 150 women who have spoken out against the sexual abuse they experienced from disgraced and imprisoned doctor Larry Nassar. Ross, an Olympic gold medalist on the 2012 team, and Kocian, a gold medalist in 2016,…
Yelena Shushunova, the 1988 Olympic all-around champion, died in St. Petersburg due to complications from pneumonia. She was 49 years old.
When Dutch gymnast Celine van Gerner was introduced for the last time in Glasgow at the 2018 European Championships, she waved to the crowd sporting a full face of cat makeup. The reason: Van Gerner, 23, was set to compete to music from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats for her floor final.
Simone Biles is set to return to competition this weekend at the U.S. Classic in Columbus, Ohio. And in the podium training session today, she showed that she’s set to pick up right where she left off at the Olympics—by winning everything in dominant fashion with incredible skills that virtually no one else can do.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation convened today its third hearing looking into the Larry Nassar scandal, as well as the people and institutions that enabled him to sexually abuse athletes for years under the guise of medical treatment. This one, entitled “Strengthening and Empowering U.S.…
One of the first times we meet Irina Viner-Usmanova, the head of Russia’s dominant rhythmic gymnastics program, in the documentary Over The Limit, she’s berating gymnast Margarita Mamun after a competition. “You were rubbish today,” says Viner-Usmanova, who wears a Justin Timberlake–style straw fedora throughout most…
You often hear athletes talk about how they practice so much, they could perform under any conditions—in the cold, in the heat, in the rain, in their sleep.
Kamerin Moore, former elite gymnast and Larry Nassar survivor, posted a video to Youtube this week discussing her struggles with body image after a lifetime spent as a gymnast. “I’ve had poor body image, I mean, as long as I can remember,” she says close to the start. “Like since I hit puberty.”
USA Gymnastics announced today that Tom Forster, a coach and gym owner from Colorado, will be the new coordinator for the U.S. women’s national team. But, per the press release from USA Gymnastics, the job appears to have been renamed. Instead of calling him the national team coordinator, which was the official title…
