Coaching couple, banned for life by Gymnastics Canada, withdraw their appeals

Eleven Canadian gymnasts who say they were abused by coaches Dave and Elizabeth Brubaker applauded the news that the couple has withdrawn an appeal of their coaching bans.

Dave Brubaker, who coached Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was banned for life by Gymnastics Canada last year after an internal investigation into multiple complaints. He'd been suspended in 2017 after he was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse. He was found not guilty, but GymCan launched its own investigation after numerous complaints.

His wife Elizabeth was suspended in 2019 through 2024.

The Brubakers have denied all allegations.

The 11 gymnasts — Melanie (Rocca) Hunt, April Nicholls, Alheli Picazo, Abby (Pearson) Spadafora, Alysia Topol, and six others referred to as "Athletes A, B, H, I, J and K" — comprise the core group of athletes who pushed for a third-party investigation and testified in the 2020 disciplinary procedure with Gymnastics Canada.

According to the Bluewater Survivors, so named because Brubaker was coach and director of Bluewater Gymnastics in Sarnia, Ont., a March 2021 disciplinary judgment found 54 counts of misconduct, including emotional, psychological, physical and sexual abuse, in the couple's capacity as coaches over multiple years, up to and including the year of Dave Brubaker's arrest in 2017.

The gymnasts decried the multi-year investigative process with Gymnastics Canada as "harmful and re-victimizing."

"It centred abusers over victims, compounded the trauma of survivors, and prolonged what had already been an open-ended nightmare.

"That process cannot be allowed to continue as is."

It's a bit of good news in a sport that has been rife with accusations of maltreatment. More than 400 current and