I have always enjoyed gymcastic. Growing up doing a sport not part of the mainstream, it was amazing to finally have a podcast dedicated to the sport that I’ve always loved. I support them monetarily. But for now, I’ve cancelled my membership 1/

I’m just one person who doesn’t hold any amount of influence, but yesterday’s podcast was simply not acceptable. Would Jessica have had this same attitude toward any other coach? She’s always taken a zero tolerance attitude, but all of a sudden there’s two sides to the story? 2/

From the outside, it’s pretty clear Val had favorites, and maybe she was a good coach for them. But being a good coach for some people absolutely does not excuse you from being an abusive coach to others. End of story. 3/

And, it’s not on Al*ssa if Val’s coaching style didn’t work for her. As a coach, your job is to work with every individual athlete. An athlete’s story of abuse is not a “learning opportunity” for a coach. You also don’t treat people like that, period no matter what. 4/

It’s also really going out on a limb to say that “well, this was 10 years ago but look at how much of an advocate for positive coaching she is now!” Are you really sure about that? Abusive doesn’t happen in a vacuum as a one time thing. 5/

Yes we have to assume innocent until proven guilty. But until you know that she hasn’t used these same abusive coaching tactics in recent years, it is also not valid to say that she’s changed. 6/

This is one reason people don’t speak out. If you were Al*ssa, how would you feel if one of the largest gymnastics platforms, who has branded themselves as an advocate for survivors, came back with, “well listen maybe you were the problem but this coach got to learn from it!” 7/

And, medically retiring is not the same as getting kicked off the team. Sometimes, athletes retire for truly medical reasons. Sometimes a coach “medicals” an athlete to force them off the team. And sometimes coaches revoke scholarships for no reason. 8/

This is a long thread and maybe no one will read it. But I spent 16 years in this sport and yes there are good coaches but I also know how broken it is and how normalized abusive coaching is. 9/

FWIW, I think Spencer and Kensley did an okay job. I hope that Jessica can see how incredibly hurtful her attitude towards this topic was. I wager that everyone who has made it through this sport has either been affected by coaches who acted like Val, or knows 10/

Someone who has. If you are really an advocate for the sport and for those who are survivors of its abusive, you have to do better than this. End/