Golgota Files Abuse Complaint with FRG

[makam]

I've honestly of late been questioning if the abusive culture was not in place pre-Karolyis. There's plenty of truly awful stories from American gyms in the 1970s. While I can't speak as confidently about other nations in the 60s and 70s I wouldn't be surprised if it was somewhat universal. That the Karolyis reinforced the culture is a given, but it may've been far more pervasive for far longer than we realize.

As for Sabrina, she's just barely reached adulthood in a legal sense. She's probably younger than her age emotionally due to the abuse. I hope she gets some grace in this whole mess because she hasn't had the distance from it to reevaluate the situation. Edit to note-- certainly not defending her actions against Golgota, but she may not fully understand the severity of them.

Was it though? (I totally don't know) But the sport was so very different back then. WAG was more focused on grace and presentation than athleticism or crazy flexibility. I'm sure the drive to win was strong and probably eating disorders were still a feature, but the skills they were doing didn't need tiny physiques--heck you could compete in a bouffant. Even though women had less of a voice back then, i think screaming at or slapping an adult woman would be very different than doing it to a kid. I would also think the abusive culture accelerated when the gymnasts got younger and less able to fight back and when perfection became defined as something an average human could never achieve (oversplits, extreme flexibility, etc).

 

[BJM123]

I suppose there are lots of people affiliated to the FRG, probably including past gymnasts, who have similar incidents in their coaching pasts. I remember Andreea Raducan showed her inaugural speech as president of the FRG a few years ago, in her film. Her big pitch seemed to be, no more complaining about coaches.

The incident with Camelia and Sabrina is hard to watch now, but I don't think it would have been career-ending for a parent-coach in the 1970s anywhere. Or the 1980s. 1990s? 2000s? Must depend on wider culture and childrearing practice where you lived. The gymnasts' memoirs we've been looking at don't suggest Romania was an anomaly any ti!f last century.

So there are a lot of people - including I'm sure Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang - with something like this in their pasts, and they're the people who are funding Romania's elite gymnasts, these days. There must be a lot of people who realise they may be better off hanging together in denial / minimisation than trying to hang Camelia I separately. They're probably going to need an external body to intervene, if anything is to happen.

I get the fact that there are lots of people who are affiliated with them and have built connections and I don't know if RGF has an EEOC or Civil Rights Division within their jurisdiction but there have been other gymnasts that have complained openly about her. Previously, Andreea Raducan, who has a DOPING charge managed to become its president? The crazy part? She was allowed to keep her medals because certain "tests" came back clean. No way.

Now we have this incident and we see the overzealousness of the mother! Honestly? I'm not sure if there's a middle ground to where the parents can be present but not intrusive and intentionally invasive. In other words, the mother SHOULD NOT be a coach, head coach, to any of the other gymnasts. Why are they giving her this much power?

You're correct about the whole area but it doesn't matter where you live if you're not adhering to rules and regulations. Add to the fact that she's abusive and not the daughter is a bully and it's a serious recipe for disaster. Golotha should defect and go on to represent another country if for no other reason than to save her sanity. Honestly? I don't think that an internal or external body is going to intervene any time soon. Wow...This is really really really bad and it give the RGF a serious black eye!

 

[BJM123]

But isn't this usually the case - the bullied/abused become bullies/abusers themselves. The cycle needs to be broken.
Sabrina needs to be taken away from her mother's control but I feel that ship has sailed. Sabrina is an adult herself and can do what she wants/be coached by who she wants.

Such a sad situation - Sabrina could have been the next Romanian superstar...

All events that Sabrina has been entered into and medaled should be stricken from the records. Why? Because we have no way of determining what level of control, pull, etc. her mother had over the other judges. I think that this goes much deeper than her mother. Wow...Just wow.

 

[BJM123]

Was it though? (I totally don't know) But the sport was so very different back then. WAG was more focused on grace and presentation than athleticism or crazy flexibility. I'm sure the drive to win was strong and probably eating disorders were still a feature, but the skills they were doing didn't need tiny physiques--heck you could compete in a bouffant. Even though women had less of a voice back then, i think screaming at or slapping an adult woman would be very different than doing it to a kid. I would also think the abusive culture accelerated when the gymnasts got younger and less able to fight back and when perfection became defined as something an average human could never achieve (oversplits, extreme flexibility, etc).

Great point

 

[BJM123]

Absolutely - and it almost becomes part of the culture that athlete abuse is the only way to produce "winners". The Karolyi methods became the template for "successful" gym programs.

We've seen this recently on the board with the summaries of gymnast biographies that abuse was simply normalised and the gymnasts needed to "suck up" everything from broken bones, to eating disorders to physical and emotional abuse... in the US, the Netherlands, Australia etc etc.

IIRC - and we are probably going back 20-25 years - at one time Silivas waded into the debate about abuse in gymnastics seeing nothing wrong with coaches giving gymnasts "spankings".

Also IIRC the coach who beat the young gymnast to death got out of prison after 3½ years - still outraged and protesting he had been unfairly treated for having to serve any time at all.

You actually had me speechless.