United States of America Gymnastics (USA Gymnastics or USAG) is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. It sets the domestic rules and policies that govern the sport, promotes and develops gymnastics on the grassroots and national levels, and serves as a resource center for members, clubs, fans and gymnasts. It selects and trains the U.S. national teams for the Olympic Games and World Championships.
Aerobic gymnastics (designated as discipline of gymnastics by the international body, the FIG)
Group gymnastics / Gymnastics for All
The Women's Artistic program holds multiple annual nationally televised competitions.
USAG was at the center of the largest sexual abuse scandal in sports history. Beginning in 2016, reports, testimony, investigations, and prosecutions revealed two decades of widespread sexual abuse of hundreds of young athletes by coaches, gyms, and other elements overseen by USAG.[3]
History
Origins
The organization was established in 1963 as the U.S. Gymnastics Federation.[1]
The need for a governing body had begun to appear at the 1959 Pan American Games, when friction developed between the Games' organizers, the Amateur Athletic Union, and the Olympic Gymnastics Committee. The NCAA was dissatisfied as well, and asked the National Association of Gymnastics Coaches to begin planning for a new national governing body. The U.S. Gymnastics Federation was established in 1963. However, resistance by the AAU, which was hesitant to relinquish control over gymnastics, and other factors meant that the new federation was not internationally recognized as the governing body of U.S. gymnastics until 1970.[4]
The organization was renamed USA Gymnastics in 1993.[5]
In 2016, reports by journalists and testimony by athletes began to reveal two decades of widespread sexual abuse of hundreds of young athletes by coaches, gyms, and other elements overseen by USAG.[3]
That year, USAG hired a former US federal prosecutor to develop recommendations to reform its policies related to sexual misconduct; her report included 70 recommendations.[6] Among these was removing the "athlete representative" from the Olympic selection committee, so athletes would be less afraid to report abuses.[7]
USA Gymnastics cut ties with the Karolyi Ranch in the wake of the scandal after several gymnasts said they had been abused by Nassar on the premises. The ranch, operated by Béla Károlyi and his wife, former national team coordinator Márta Károlyi, had been the official US Women's National Team Training Center since 2001.[7] On January 25, 2018, the Ranch announced the permanent closure of the facility on its website.
In 2018, Larry Nassar, who was the national team doctor through four Olympic cycles,[7] pleaded guilty to sexually abusing over 300 female athletes,[8] including Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber. Following his sentencing, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) threatened to decertify USA Gymnastics unless the entire board resigned. USA Gymnastics complied and all 21 board members resigned on January 26.[9] Olympic medalist McKayla Maroney has filed a lawsuit alleging that USA Gymnastics paid her to keep silent about Nassar's abuse.[7] Gymnasts have called for those who protected Nassar, including in the USOPC and USA Gymnastics, to be held accountable for their actions.[10]
On November 5, 2018, the USOPC announced that it was starting the process to decertify USAG as the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States.[13] One month later, USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy.[14][15][16]
In 2018, USA Gymnastics revised its mission statement, declaring that it aims to create "a culture that empowers and supports its athletes and focuses on its highest priority, the safety and well-being of the athletes."[1]
On October 31, 2020, then-US President, Donald Trump, signed the Empowering Olympic, Paralympic and Amateur Athletes Act into law.[17] First introduced in the United States Senate on July 30, 2019 by Kansas Republican Senator, Jerry Moran, and co-sponsored by Connecticut Democratic Senator, Richard Blumenthal, the bill received bipartisan support and unanimously passed in the United States House of Representatives on October 29, 2020.[18][8] Under the new bill, athletes gained greater protection from abuse, including sexual abuse, by coaches and employees in Olympic and Paralympic sports in addition to greater representation in decision-making roles.[18] In the wake of the Larry Nassar revelations, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee increased funding for the United States Center for SafeSport from $4.5 million to $7.5 million in 2019 and began working on reform to fill at least half of seats on USOPC boards and committees with current and former athletes, including National Governing Bodies (NGBs) for individual sports, such as USA Gymnastics and USA Swimming, create better oversight of affiliated sports organizations, make it easier for athletes to report concerns, and provide greater budget transparency.[8] The Empowering Olympic, Paralympic and Amateur Athletes Act increased federation funding for the U.S. Center for SafeSport to $20 million, gave the USOPC exclusive authority to respond to sexual abuse and sexual allegations of misconduct within the USOPC and NGBs, established a bipartisan committee to do a complete review of the USOPC, and empowered the United States Congress to dissolve the USOPC and decertify NGBs if they fail to follow through on reforms.[8][17] Upon signature, Senator Moran and Senator Blumenthal issued a joint statement, crediting survivors, colleagues, and athlete advocates that traveled to Washington to share their stories and demand change, for making it possible.[17]
On February 25, 2021, the State of Michigan charged former USA Gymnastics coach John Geddert with 24 felonies including human trafficking and forced labor, first-degree sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, racketeering, and lying to police. Geddert was the US national team coach at the 2012 London Olympics and was closely affiliated with Larry Nassar. Geddert died by suicide the same day.[19]
On May 14, 2021, the United States Center for SafeSport suspended French coach Jean-Luc Cairon from all contact with athletes and USA Gymnastics member clubs & members while it conducts an investigation of allegations against him, and he was entered into the SafeSport Centralized Disciplinary Database for allegations of misconduct.[20][21] Cairon was then arrested, released on bail, showed intent to flee the court's jurisdiction by leaving the United States, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison upon a guilty plea.[22] Cairon died in prison while serving out his sentence, on February 26, 2022, at the age of 60.[23]
New leadership
Since 2019, USA Gymnastics has been led by president and CEOLi Li Leung, a former vice president of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Leung competed at club and NCAA levels, then served as a volunteer assistant gymnastics coach while studying for her master's degree. In a USAG statement on February 19, 2019, Leung said she was "upset and angry to learn about the abuse and the institutions that let the athletes down," would "make it a priority to see that their claims are resolved", and looks forward "to collaborating with the entire gymnastics community to create further change..."[24]
Women's Artistic programs
Elite Program
The Elite Program consists of regional and national training programs and competitions designed for athletes aspiring to represent the United States in international competition. Athletes participate at Developmental, Open, Pre-Elite, and National Team training camps. Only athletes at the National Team level are called "elite gymnasts".[25] There are two Elite groups: Junior Elite (ages 11–15) and Senior Elite (ages 16+).
Annual elite-level competitions include the American Cup, U.S. Classic, and U.S. Championships, as well as multiple National Qualifying Meets throughout the year.[26] Junior and Senior National Teams are selected based on performance at the U.S. Championships. These athletes then compete at the World Championships. In Olympic years, elite gymnasts compete at the Summer Olympics.
To get to the elite level, a gymnast must pass both the elite compulsory and optional qualifiers. In elite compulsory qualifiers, gymnasts compete a basic routine designed by organizers to demonstrate that the gymnast has all the basic skills, including twists, handsprings, jumps, leaps, kips to cast handstand, giants, turns, and more. In elite optionals, the gymnast is evaluated for advanced skills and moves, such as pak saltos, releases, complex dismounts, multiple tucks/twists, double layouts, twisting vaults, and more. In optionals, gymnasts create their own routines.
Talent Opportunity Program
The Talent Opportunity Program (TOPs) seeks to identify talented female gymnasts aged 7–10 for further training up to the elite level. State and regional evaluations are followed by a national test of physical abilities and basic gymnastics skills in October of each year. This is followed by a national training camp in December for those who qualify.[27]
Olympics Hopefuls program
The Olympics Hopefuls program (HOPEs) is a program to identify talented gymnasts, generally aged 11-14, and train them to an advanced level. In order to qualify for HOPEs, a gymnast must pass both the elite compulsory and optional qualifiers, and get a certain minimum score. HOPEs Elite gymnasts compete at elite meets, but not as a Junior Elite.
Women's Development Program
The Women's Development Program (previously the Junior Olympic program) provides training, evaluation, and competition opportunities to allow developing gymnasts to safely advance at their own pace through specific skill levels. Most competitive gymnasts advance through this system.
As of August 1, 2013, the levels are as follows.[28]
Developmental levels 1–2: the most fundamental skills performed in a non-competitive, achievement-oriented environment
Compulsory levels 3–5: progressively difficult skills performed competitively as standardized routines (all gymnasts at a given level perform the same routines)
Optional levels 6–10: progressively difficult skills performed competitively in original routines
Skills are grouped by degree of difficulty and given the letter ratings A–E, with A denoting the easiest skills. Levels 6–8 have difficulty restrictions, in that a gymnast competing at one of these levels may not attempt skills above a certain level of difficulty (for example, level 6 and 7 gymnasts may only include A and B skills in their routines). Levels 9 and 10 have no such difficulty restrictions, although level 9 gymnasts may include only one D or E skill in any single routine.[29]
In addition to demonstrating the necessary skills, gymnasts must reach a minimum age to advance to the next level. For example, level 8 and 9 gymnasts must be at least 8 years old; level 10 gymnasts must be at least 9 years old. Regardless of age, all beginning gymnasts enter the program at level 1 and may advance through more than one level per year. Competitions for gymnasts at level 7 culminate in State Championships, level 8 at Regional Championships, level 9 at Eastern or Western Championships, and level 10 at Junior Olympic National Championships.[30]
Before August 1, 2013, the developmental levels were numbered 1–4, the compulsory levels 5–6, and the optional levels 7–10. The old levels 1 and 2 have been combined into the new level 1; level 7 has been split into the new levels 6 and 7; and the numbering of levels 3–6 have each been shifted down one level for the new system.[29]
Xcel Program
The Xcel Program provides training and competition experience for gymnasts outside of the traditional Junior Olympic program. Its stated purpose is "to provide gymnasts of varying abilities and commitment levels, the opportunity for a rewarding gymnastics experience." Participants compete in individual and team competitions in Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond divisions, based on age and ability level.[31]
Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which assigns the Code of Points used to score performances and regulates all aspects of elite international competition. Within individual countries, gymnastics is regulated by national federations such as British Gymnastics and USA Gymnastics. Artistic gymnastics is a popular spectator sport at many competitions, including the Summer Olympic Games.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the National Paralympic Committee for the United States. It was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The USOPC is one of only four NOCs in the world that also serve as the National Paralympic Committee for their country. The USOPC is responsible for supporting, entering and overseeing U.S. teams for the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Youth Olympic Games, Pan American Games, Parapan American Games and Junior Pan American Games and serves as the steward of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements in the United States.
Anastasia "Nastia" Valeryevna Liukin is an American former artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic all-around champion, a five-time Olympic medalist, the 2005 and 2007 World champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World champion on the uneven bars. She is also a four-time all-around U.S. national champion, winning twice as a junior and twice as a senior. With nine World Championships medals, seven of them individual, Liukin is tied with Shannon Miller for the third-highest tally of World Championship medals among U.S. gymnasts. Liukin also tied Miller's record as the American gymnast having won the most medals in a single non-boycotted Olympic Games. In October 2011, Liukin announced that she was returning to gymnastics with the hopes of making a second Olympic team. Liukin did not make the 2012 Olympic team and retired from the sport on July 2, 2012.
Márta Károlyi is a Romanian-Hungarian-American gymnastics coach and the former national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics. She and her husband, Béla, are ethnic Hungarians from Transylvania, Romania, who trained athletes in Romania, including Nadia Comăneci, before defecting to the United States in 1981. Béla and Márta Károlyi have trained nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists and many U.S. national champions, including Comăneci, Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Teodora Ungureanu, Phoebe Mills, Kim Zmeskal, and Dominique Moceanu.
Valeri Viktorovich Liukin is a Kazakh-American retired artistic gymnast currently working as a gymnastics coach. Representing the former Soviet Union, Liukin was the 1988 Olympic champion in the team competition and individually on the horizontal bar, and Olympic silver medalist in the all-around and the parallel bars.
The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) is a two-facility gymnastics club located in Frisco and Plano.
Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters is a 1995 nonfiction book by San Francisco Chronicle sports writer Joan Ryan detailing the difficult training regimens endured by young girls in competitive sports such as gymnastics and figure skating, published by Doubleday Books. Ryan's material was largely derived from personal interviews with nearly 100 former gymnasts and figure skaters as well as trainers, sports psychologists, physiologists, and other experts, focusing on the physical and emotional hardships young girls endured for the sake of Olympic glory.
Rhonda Faehn is an American college gymnastics coach and former college and elite gymnast. Faehn was the head coach of the Florida Gators women's gymnastics team of the University of Florida for thirteen seasons, from 2003 to 2015. As a gymnast, Faehn competed at the 1987 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships and was named as an alternate for the U.S team at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Faehn also competed collegiately, earning a scholarship to UCLA, where she attended from 1990 to 1994. She is best known for leading the Florida Gators to twelve consecutive appearances in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women's gymnastics tournament, and three consecutive NCAA championships in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Faehn left the University of Florida in 2015 to become the Senior Vice President of USA Gymnastics, the governing body of gymnastics in the United States. On May 17, 2018, USA Gymnastics parted ways with Faehn, who came under fire from survivors of former national team doctor Larry Nassar's abuse.
Gymnastics Australia (GA) is the governing body for the sport of gymnastics in Australia.
Carol Michelle "Chelle" Stack is a former gymnast. She competed for the United States national team at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics. She is currently active as a brevet rated judge at US national gymnastics competitions.
Margaret Mary Nichols is an American former collegiate artistic gymnast. She was the ninth NCAA gymnast to complete a Gym Slam, the first to do so for Oklahoma, and the first NCAA gymnast to have achieved it twice.
Ashton Taylor Locklear is a retired American artistic gymnast from North Carolina. She was a member of the gold medal-winning United States team at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, and is a two-time national champion on the uneven bars. Locklear was an uneven bars specialist and was an alternate for the 2016 Summer Olympics U.S. gymnastics team, the Final Five.
Artistic gymnastics is a type of gymnastics in which athletes compete with short routines on various equipment, including bars, beams, rings, pommel horses, vaulting tables, and on a sprung floor. Gymnastics is well-established in the United States, where available programs range from recreational classes, casual summer camps, and children's leagues; to highly competitive collegiate leagues and four national teams. Although this is not unique to the United States, due to the physically demanding nature of the sport there are fewer options for adult gymnastics outside the elite level, although local parks and recreation departments often have limited offerings.
The USA Gymnastics National Team Training Center at Karolyi Ranch or simply Karolyi Ranch in unincorporated Walker County, Texas, southeast of Huntsville, was a gymnastics camp facility which was the site of the main training center for the United States women's national gymnastics team, located 70 miles (110 km) north of Houston within the Sam Houston National Forest. From 2001 to 2018, it was the USA Gymnastics' national training facility for women's artistic, trampoline, and rhythmic gymnastics disciplines.
Stephen D. Penny Jr. is an American businessman and sports administrator. He was president and CEO of USA Gymnastics (USAG) from 2005 until 2017, and is a key figure in the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal.
John Gerald Geddert was an American artistic gymnastics coach, who was a head coach of the gold-medal 2012 U.S. women's Olympic team and regular coach of team member Jordyn Wieber. He retired when suspended by USA Gymnastics in 2018 after being implicated in the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal centered on his long-time associate Larry Nassar. Geddert committed suicide in 2021, shortly after being charged with 24 criminal charges, including 20 counts of human trafficking of a minor, one count each of first-degree criminal sexual assault, second-degree criminal sexual assault involving a minor, and lying to a police officer.
The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal relates to the sexual abuse of hundreds of gymnasts—primarily minors—over two decades in the United States, starting in the 1990s. It is considered the largest sexual abuse scandal in sports history.
Lawrence Gerard Nassar is an American serial child rapist and former family medicine physician. From 1996 to 2014, he was the team doctor of the United States women's national gymnastics team, where he used his position to exploit and sexually assault hundreds of young athletes as part of the largest sexual abuse scandal in sports history.
Athlete A is a 2020 American documentary film about the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal. Directed by Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, the documentary follows a team of investigative journalists from The Indianapolis Star as they broke the story of doctor Larry Nassar sexually assaulting young female gymnasts and the subsequent allegations that engulfed USA Gymnastics (USAG) and its then-CEO Steve Penny. It was released on June 24, 2020, by Netflix.
Dianne Patrice Durham was an American artistic gymnast. In 1983, she won the all-around senior title at the women's US National Championships, becoming the first African American athlete to do so. She was Béla and Márta Károlyi's first elite athlete in the United States, helping establish their coaching credentials outside of the state-sponsored program of their native Romania, and trained with Mary Lou Retton, who called Durham her "best competition". After injuries and competition stipulations prevented her from competing in the 1984 Summer Olympics, Durham retired from competition in 1985. She later ran the Skyline Gymnastics school in Chicago.
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