Gymnasts express dismay with Sport Canada's response to calls for third-party investigation

A group of more than 400 Canadian gymnasts are angry over Sport Canada's response to calls for a third-party investigation into their sport, saying it "deflects and defers any meaningful action."

Gymnasts for Change Canada — a group that has grown from an original 70 to close to 450 current and retired athletes — wrote to Sport Canada late last month pleading for an investigation into the sport's toxic culture and maltreatment of athletes, many of them minors.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Sport Canada's director general Vicki Walker, they said her response "closely resembles how Gymnastics Canada has responded to athletes for decades. As the leading sport authority in Canada, we expect stronger leadership. Instead, we are left with yet another Canadian organization enabling systemic child abuse and failing to step into their obligatory duty of care.

"Every day sport fails to act is another day athletes remain subject to abuse. How many more children need to be abused? How many more, because of this abuse, will contemplate suicide or self-harm before Sport Canada implements meaningful action?"

Walker's April 20th letter to the gymnasts commended the athletes for their "courage and resilience in coming forward." Since she said that in 2018, Sport Canada has introduced new requirements of federally-funded organizations, supported the development of the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport, and supported the establishment of the first Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner to receive and manage reports from victims and witnesses.

The gymnasts' complaints come amid an outcry from athletes in numerous sports about toxic environments. Bobsled and skeleton athletes penned a similar letter