Figure skater, gymnasts reveal culture of abuse
SINGAPORE/SYDNEY: A world championship figure skater has opened up about physical and mental abuse she allegedly suffered while training in China, which included being kicked, hit and called insulting names. Jessica Shuran Yu, who was born and trained in China but competed internationally for Singapore, is the latest athlete to make abuse allegations in recent weeks. Yu detailed the alleged mistreatment in an Instagram post, saying that her coach hurled insults at skaters such as “lazy”, “fat”, “stupid” and “useless”.
“I was eleven years old when the physical abuse started,” wrote Yu, who competed in the 2017 world championships, describing how her coach would hit her using a plastic blade cover.
“When he got angry with me, which seemed to happen whenever I made the smallest mistake, he would ask me to reach out a hand. “On especially bad days, I would get hit more than ten times in a row, until my skin was raw.”
Her coach would also kick her shin with the blade of a skate, the 19-year-old said. “Even though I would be bleeding from his kick, I would have to turn around and continue practice without limping as to avoid angering him more,” she said in the post.
AUSSIES COME OUT TOO
Former Australian gymnasts have gone public with accounts of physical, mental and emotional abuse which left at least one athlete contemplating suicide. Their decision to highlight the “dark and horrible” abuse follows the recent release of American documentary ‘Athlete A’ charting investigations into USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who was jailed for life in 2018 after abusing more than 250 athletes.
While none of the Aussie allegations involves sexual impropriety, they detail body-shaming, neglect and manipulation, prompting Gymnastics Australia to issue a letter Wednesday praising those who have gone public. “At my supposed peak I was an anxious, stressed and depressed teenager,” Chloe Gilliland, who as Chloe Sims won gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, said on Facebook.