Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics' Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams

[IratePanda]

@QuietColours , again, thank you for summarizing this, and your thoughts at the end.

Given the way she talks about others in the book, how much she thinks of herself, and how it seems nothing is ever her fault, I can just imagine how unbearable she must be in person.

I know people like her, including my FIL. Luckily, I only see him a few times a year, and I pretend he's a piece of furniture. I would do the same to Jen Sey if she were a family member. If she were a colleague, I would keep my distance. She would never be a friend. Someone that toxic can't be a friend.

 

[KristyJ]

I know I am a couple days late in replying-- family visited from out of town and took all my time-- but did anyone else get the sense that she gave up on herself and may've subconciously thrown her career away because she didn't think she could do it? I get that she was going through an incredibly abusive situation, and that it must've been supremely satisfying to walk out on Donna Strauss after the weight comments, and that she was constantly injured, and all that worked against her, but the backing out of gym or even the allowing herself food and boys on tour when she'd have previously thought those were not for her (even though the dichotomy is false) happened so quickly after she heard / focussed on negative comments about her win, could it be she kind of chose not to find out? Of course she wouldn't say that if this conjecture has any truth to it.

It just seems like such an abrupt switch.

Agreed with all the takes that she is incredibly harsh towards others in a way she is not with herself, and that she must be a very difficult person with whom to interact.

 

[makam]

It could have definitely been some self-sabotage. She had reached the top and probably knew it was kind of a fluke and she was unlikely to repeat even without everyone telling her. And with her personality type, i don't think she could have handled falling back to mid pack if she has put in as much effort as previously. She wasn't stupid, she had to have seen how much easier it seemed for some of the other athletes and while the 10 system can keep some gymnasts with marginal difficulty in the mix, the writing was on the wall that new hotness was coming in.

Though her and the other comeback athlete just deciding to have fun was probably the healthiest reaction in the whole book.