430: Athlete A with Jennifer Sey

GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast

Club Gym Nerd members can watch the podcast being recorded (pre-edits with all the flubs and hiccups) and see video of the routines we discuss.

THIS WEEK'S INTERVIEW

Jennifer Sey became the US national champion in 1986, just seven months after breaking her femur at the 1985 world championships, an injury that led to a change in rules about bars spotting. In 2008, she published her groundbreaking memoir Chalked Up and has since been an advocate for survivors and those fighting against abuse in gymnastics. She produced the documentary Athlete A about the failures of USA Gymnastics to deal with the criminal ex-doctor, which premieres on Netflix this week. We talked with her about what she hopes the general public learns about gymnastics culture from the film, whether the Maggie Haney suspension represents progress or not, why watching Kerri Strug vault in 1996 didn't feel like a glorious moment to her, and balancing the horror of Athlete A with hope by focusing on the triumphs of Maggie Nichols, Rachael Denhollander, Jamie Dantzscher, and the Indy Star journalists.

Related Reading:

• Jen Sey's Op-Ed in the New York Times: How Gymnastics Culture Breeds Sexual Abuse
• Why Not Being Racist is Not Enough
• Chalked Up by Jennifer Sey
• Athlete A trailer

GYMTERNET NEWS

• A vital episode dedication to Natalia Frolova
• URGENT: An email from someone who coached at the Karolyi summer camps
• Feedback on the John Orozco interview and Kensley's response
• Seattle Pacific eliminates its gymnastics program
• Major dumpster fire developments in bankruptcy court
• Germany (kind of?) did a gymnastics over the weekend
• Simone did a triple double off beam and we need to talk about it

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