Found it and read it. Wow, it should be required reading for everyone with children in organized sports.
I wasn't entirely shocked when I read it but to read it FROM HER, was a jolt for me....she was a former National team member, trained at at good gym (WOGA) with many contacts, appeared to do well at Michigan, even team captain her senior year.....but feels the experience was awful on the whole. I know kids who were on the team with her and from talking to them, you wouldn't have thought that this was the experience of any gymnast on that Michigan team....but there you have it. She does say it is HER perspective but my God, to put this all down in writing, something definitely was amiss...
And she just puts it all out there.....people are mean across the age span ( which I interpret as teammates, coaches and admins, and probably some teammates parents unfortunately...), how adults at college don't always know what's best for the athlete ( we actually knew a gymnast who the coaching staff tried to convince to give up HER scholarship so they could promise it to someone else because "that would be better off for you in the long run, and don't call your parents, it's just between us"...she declined their weekly "offers"), how it's not so "different" competing in college except the whole team aspect (I always said that when the coaches trotted that line out), be nice to your teammates ( gee, novel concept) and if they are not, don't stoop to their level, your own teammates may haze you, you may never bond with anyone, you may be on a team that only wants their own individual success, and my personal horrifying favorite: your teammates may make you feel outcasted and more alone than ever before....her account is truly heartbreaking......
