Letās talk about the infamous ones ...
When the stories from Kim Zmeskalās former Texas Dreams athletes came out one of the things they repeatedly asked was that people stop making lists of good coaches.Ā Texas Dreams reputation as aĀ āgood gymā had the effect of silencing them because they felt like no one would believe them.Ā I do think itās worth going through why some coaches have bad reputations and exactly what is at the root of those reputations.
This list does not include the Karolyis who are out of the sport or John Geddert who committed suicide before being arrested on charges relating to his abuse of gymnasts.Ā It also doesnāt include the reputations of NCAA coaches many of which are just as checkered.Ā it is by no means complete.
Rochelle Douglas (Great Britain) - Coach of European and British Junior Champion Catherine Lyons who has come forward with stories of being beaten with a stick, starved (including being told not to eat for a week while at a training camp), and emotional abuse.Ā At one point when Lyons was injured just before a competition she texted Lyons a picture of herself wearing the leotard that Lyons would have competed in.Ā She was banned for two years by British Gymnastics.
Al Fong/GAGE (USA) - Coach of 2004 Olympic silver medalists Courtney McCool and Terin Humphry. Ā Fong, foremost, infamous in gymnastics circles for the untimely deaths of two gymnasts. Ā In 1988 Julissa Gomez was paralyzed and subsequently died after performing a vault that many believe she was not capable of doing. Ā The second gymnast, Christy Henrich died as a result of an eating disorder. Ā There is a great deal of debate over how much Fong was responsible for instigating/fostering that disorder and over the years he and his allies have attempted to put forward a narrative in which he isnāt responsible but has changed his ways. Ā Most recently one of his former gymnasts used her role as a clinical psychologist to write an op ed to absolve him of guilt in this case in which blame was laid on the comments of a conveniently dead former gymnastics judge. Ā Other things that contribute to his reputation are famously draconian rules for his athletes (no boyfriends is one), a reputation for not listening to the advise of women other than his wife, and an instragram account which has occasionally posted content that many find disquieting. Ā On a different track his gym also comes with a reputation for occasional baffling routine construction choices and one of his athletes famously had her score lowered at 2019 worlds when they inquired into her score and the review jury lowered even more.
Maggie Haney (USA) - Currently serving a suspension for emotional abuse of her athletes Olympic Gold Medalist Laurie Hernandez and World Champion Riley McCusker. Ā Both have talked about being forced to train on injuries and overtraining. Ā Hernandez talks about Haney yelling so loudly that the businesses that shared a parking lot with her gym would file noise complaints with the town. Ā Her safe sport suspension will be up in 2025 and given that there are still families sending their daughters to train with her she will almost certainly be back in the sport.
Kelli Hill (USA) - Coach of Olympic Gold Medalist Dominique Dawes, Olympic Silver medalist Courtney Kupets, and Olympic Bronze Medalist Elise Ray.Ā Most of the allegations around Hill stem from her time when Dominique Dawes was living with her which Dawes has recently started to detail.Ā Dawes describes Hill taking advantage of the stresses on her parents marriage to gain control over her, of belittling her, gaslighting her and sitting on her during stretching.Ā In 1992 she threatened to send Dawes to the Karolyi camp as punishment and later as the Nassar survivors started to talk about their experiences at the camp she claimed that Aly Reisman was exaggerating the conditions.Ā She has recently retired from coaching elites but as of 2022 is chair of the powerful International Elite Committee in USAG.
Vladimir Lashin (Canada) - At one point the head coach of the Canadian womenās team his gymnasts tell a litany of horror stories from injuries caused by or ignored by him, forcing them to stand on scales, and massive amounts of verbal abuse.
Peggy Liddick (USA/Australia) - the coach of Olympic Gold Medalist Shannon Miller and later head coach of the Australian program.Ā While in the US she supervised Kerri Strug being allowed to compete with an abdominal tare which caused her parents to pull Strug from the gym.Ā For years Liddick described that there was a mistake in Millerās 1996 Olympic beam that only she and Shannon knew and when she finally revealed it it was that Miller had a broken wrist and so couldnāt do one of the skilsĀ ācorrectlyā.Ā Liddick as given a lot of credit for the rise of the Australian gymnastics program (which was on an upward tregectory before she arrived) and recently Australian investigative bodies have published reports into her treatment of gymnasts there.Ā This included among other things threatening to lock gymnasts in their room and feed them peas and carrots under the door, forcing gymnasts to eat their dinner (noodle soup) in her hotel room and withholding noodles from those who she deemed to not be working hard enough.Ā She made a number of strategic decisions in the 2010s which were somewhat baffling including refusing to take any gymnasts to 2013 Worlds claiming they didnāt have high enough scores (even though their scores would have placed them in event finals at that worlds), and leaving the 2014 Australian AA champion home from both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.Ā Many consider Liddick responsible for crashing the entire Australian program.
Valeri Liukin/WAGA (USA) - Soviet Olympic Gold Medalist, coach of 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Nastia Liukin. Ā A number of WOGA athletes including Vanessa Atler and Katelyn Ohashi have come forward with stories about weight shaming and eating disorders developed at WOGA while other WOGA athletes tell stories of emotional abuse including of his own daughter. Ā Mostly WOGA is famous for producing teenage girls with injuries you normally see in 50 year old dock workers (with WOGA back being one of the more common). Ā He was forced to resign as head of the US womenās national program in 2018 after statements from former athletes. Ā He again tried to apply for that job in 2022 before yet more of his former athletes filed safe sport complaints forcing USAG to drop him from consideration. Ā He was briefly the head of the Brazilian womenās program until 2019 when they failed to qualify a team for the Tokyo Olympics. Ā Itās said that he forced long standing athletes like Daniele Hypólito out of the program wanting to focus on younger āmore promisingā athletes. Ā Many of which ended up injured during the Tokyo qualification process. Ā Itās worth noting that many of the Brazilian athletes have positive things to say about him but they largely amount to āhe didnāt yell like our previous coachā. Ā Despite being considered one of the top coaches in the US he has never coached an American elite to the Olympics besides his own daughter and there are many young women who have been either burn out or injured before what was considered their prime.Ā He has also given some very eyebrow raising comments in Russian language interviews presumably believing that they would not make their way back into the English language gymternet.
Steve and Beth Rybacki (USA) - Coach of Olympic bronze medalist Jamie Dantzscher. Ā Weight shaming, emotional abuse and baffling pacing of the elite career of Vanessa Atler. Ā The account of their gym in the book Start by Believing is very damning as well as Steve Rybackiās clear anger issues that he didnāt even hide very well in front of the tv cameras. Ā There is at least one story about him yelling at a journalist while he was on the US National Team staff for writing that a gymnast needed to work on her turns claiming that it was some kind of betrayal of their access.
Bill and Donna Strauss (USA) - largely retired though their daughter still coaches elites from the Parkettes gym. Ā The Parkettes became infamous after a 2003 CNN Documentary which showed them yelling and belittling athletes. Ā The gym had a long standing reputation for sending athletes to NCAA with serious injury issues. Ā Donna Strauss told one doctor in 1985 not to put stitches in an athleteās face after an injury because she would be seen on television. Ā One of their more successful athletes was 2000 Olympian Kristin Maloney who competed on an leg fracture for more than a year and ended up having to have a rod placed in her leg.
Mary Lee Tracy (USA) - Coach of 1996 Olympic Gold Medalists Amanda Borden and Jaycie Phelps. Ā Many many former gymnasts most prominently Morgan White and Dominique Moceanu have talked about Mary Lee Tracy has emotionally manipulative--often using her evangelical Christianity to defend herself against accusations. Ā Her gym as a reputation for eating disorders and having athletes throw skills that they arenāt prepared for leading to injuries. Ā At one point she was not charging her elite gymnasts for her coaching as she saw it as good advertising for her gym though that meant that if you were in a financially difficult situation you may not feel able to leave. Ā In 2018 she was named as head of the USAG development program for about 3 minutes before being asked to resign after outcry from survivors. Ā In 2016 she had made this comment: Ā āMy Olympians have all worked with Larry [Nassar]. We were all defending him because he has helped so many kids in their careers. He has protected them, taken care of them, worked with me and worked with their parents. Heās been amazing." Ā As of 2022 she was a member of the powerful International Elite Committee within USAG.
Vincent Wevers (Netherlands) - The coach/father of Olympic Gold Medalist Sanne Wevers.Ā He was accused of emotional abuse and harassing gymnasts who left the dutch national training center.Ā He was found not guilty of abuse allegations after the Dutch gymnastics federation failed to adequately investigate the charges.Ā After his contract was not renewed his daughters have left the national team and apparently set up an alternate training structure which appears to be an effort to force the Dutch national team to bend to their wishes judging that they are indispensable and attempting to scapegoat one of their fatherās accusers by framing their leaving the program as her making them feel unsafe when accounts suggest that they the ones harassing her and refusing to mediate with her.Ā Many in the the Dutch gym world are at this point wary of Wevers family drama.Ā
Wu Jiani/Anna Li (USA) - Wu Jiani is a former Olympic Bronze medalist and her daughter Anna Li was a star at UCLA and an alternate for the London Olympics.Ā They have been under investigation for verbal and emotional abuse for a number of years and Anna Li who is also a gymnastics judge has made negative social media posts against athletes who bring abuse allegations against their coaches.
Kim Zmeskal (USA) - 1991 World Champion and Olympic Bronze Medalist, Zmeskalās gym Texas Dreams picked up a reputation for burn out and a high injury rate (sometimes called Texas Nightmares or Texas Injury Petitions). Ā Their gymnasts seemed to flame out before reaching their potential and after Regan Smith was injured just minutes before the start of the 2017 Worlds AA where she was considered a favorite Smith competed throughout the 2018 season never allowing her ankle to completely heal. Ā In 2020 several Texas Dreams athletes came forward with stories of Zmeskal being controlling, pitting them against their teammates, training on injuries and ignoring an injured athlete crawling around on the floor in pain. Ā There were also allegations that her coaching partner and husband would make racist jokes involving masters and slaves and replacing a slur with the name of one of their young black gymnast. Ā Kennedy Baker has said that Zmeskal came into her hotel room and cut off her hair with out her or her parents consent which also carries a racial connotation given that Zmeskal is white and Baker is black.