Gymnastics and child abuse: an analysis of former international Portuguese female artistic gymnasts

‘Everything revolves around gymnastics’: athletes and parents make sense of elite youth sport

“…Scholarly attention has been paid to how this asymmetric coach-athlete dependency relationship is created and maintained (e.g. Gervis and Dunn 2004;Johns and Johns 2000;Pinheiro et al 2014;Stirling and Kerr 2008b, 2013Warriner and Lavallee 2008). The results have shown that compliance and docility of athletes are enabled by coaching styles that rely on the use of autocratic disciplinary techniques and the desire by athletes to do well in international and national competitions.…”

“…Barker et al 2014;Brackenridge and Fasting 2005;Gervis and Dunn 2004;Kerr and Stirling 2012;Pinheiro et al 2014;Ryan 2000;Schubring and Thiel 2014;Stirling and Kerr 2009). What is different about this frame is that former elite gymnasts had complained to the media in five extensive articles published between 2011 and 2014 in a popular Dutch sport magazine 'Heroes' and in several TV programmes.…”

“…A growing number of studies have indicated concerns about pedagogical values of high-performance sport for youth (e.g. Gervis and Dunn 2004;Pinheiro et al 2014;Stirling and Kerr, 2008a, 2008a, 2013Warriner and Lavallee 2008). This literature contends that coaches often try to build their reputation on the success or performance of their athletes and may push them in ways that are more in the interest of coaches than athletes.…”

“…Since these female gymnasts have constructed success as important, it is hardly surprising that they tended to do what the coach said, learned to keep quiet and not be assertive or 'complain' and to view this as normal behaviour (see also Pinheiro et al 2014). 'He spent the whole training session criticising people and being rude.…”

“…This labelling of an attitude as incorrect reflects how coaches can control and shape (and reform) the behaviour of the female gymnasts and their interactions (see also Pinheiro et al 2014;Stirling and Kerr 2009). Female gymnasts with a 'good' attitude therefore enacted the behaviour desired by the coach.…”