'Broken by the system': Athlete details Gymnastics Canada's mishandling of abuse claims

A gymnast says he was abused in his sport and then broken by a Canadian system that failed to address that abuse.

Ryan Sheehan spoke Monday in Ottawa to a parliamentary committee on safe sport.

The 29-year-old from Edmonton joined several athletes who have testified in front of both the Heritage and Status of Women committees in recent months about abuse in Canadian sport.

"There were many nights where I felt broken beyond repair. I was not broken by sport. I was abused in sport and broken by the system," Sheehan told the Heritage committee.

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Sheehan has competed twice at the world trampoline championship.

He and Kim Shore, who has appeared before the Status of Women committee and was also present Monday, are co-founders of Gymnasts For Change Canada.

Sheehan said a national team therapist groped him when he was a teenager.

"He put his hand up my gym suit and underwear and groped my genitals twice," Sheehan said.

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport ordered GymCan to do an investigation.

Sheehan learned four other individuals had come forward about their experiences with the therapist.

"This man was never sanctioned by GymCan," Sheehan said.

After recounting his abuse and his despondence over Gymnastics Canada's handing of it in a social media post in 2021, Sheehan said a conversation with the organization's welfare officer Gretchen Kerr left him feeling suicidal.

"She claimed I had never filed a formal complaint so I had no reason to be upset, and if I was careful about what I posted there would be an outcome that both she and I would be happy with," Sheehan said.

"The organization that my family and I entrusted with my physical and mental well-being for two