‘Very toxic environment’: Canadian gymnasts allege years of abuse, call for action

There are growing calls in Canada to address abusive practices in gymnastics, with athletes alleging ongoing abuse in gyms across the country.

After walking away from the sport she once enjoyed, former Canadian gymnast Carmen Whelan says she looks back at her 14-year athletic career with more painful memories than good ones.

Whelan, who represented Canada at the Pan American Games, Commonwealth Games and multiple world championships, says years of physical, verbal and emotional abuse finally caught up with her, pushing the Ontario native into retirement in March 2020, right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was very unhappy in the sport with the abuse and the treatment. I thought it was a good time for me to leave,” Whelan, 24, of Aurora, Ont., told Global News.

Unaware at the time, the physical abuse started when she was around the age of eight, Whelan says.

“We would put two chairs and we (would) sit in the splits between them and our coach … a grown woman, 150 pounds would come over and sit on you for a minute and a half, two minutes and you’re in agonizing pain as your muscles are technically tearing,” she said.

As she got older and more successful, the training, which “kept going and going with no breaks and no snacks,” became more physically challenging, Whelan said.

“We just kept getting injured and we were all very down, and it was a very toxic environment to be in too.”

In British Columbia, Cassidy Jones of Port Coquitlam says one of her coaches — “a large heavy, man” — walked on her and other girls’ backs to the point that “we couldn’t breathe,” she said. Jones, 26, was eight at the time.