GYMNASTICS

British Gymnastics chief executive Sarah Powell has issued a “genuine apology” for the abuse scandal that has rocked the sport and admitted the governing body faces a long and difficult task to restore trust.

Safeguarding failures from junior to elite level have been catalogued in the Whyte Review, published yesterday, which was jointly commissioned by UK Sport and Sport England.

The 306-page report accused British Gymnastics of presiding over an era in which money and medals mattered more than athlete safety and said it had singularly failed to listen to athletes’ complaints.

Powell, whose predecessor Jane Allen was strongly criticised in the report, said: “I’ve been in sport for a very long time and sport has always been important to me.

“It’s something that has given me confidence and enjoyment in life. To read the recollection of these individuals who’ve had such a poor experience of the sport, which has clearly affected them and they’ve suffered because of it, is not acceptable. “I had to speak to gymnasts this morning and it was hard, because you could see how it affected them. I looked them in the eye and said sorry.” Powell said the governing body accepted all the recommendations in the report and “will not shy away” from taking the steps required to restore confidence in both British Gymnastics and the sport as a whole.

“This is a genuine apology, from the sport, from myself, from the leadership,” added Powell. “We have to set a new path, a new roadmap. Gymnastics will be different because of the bravery of the young people who spoke up.”

But the campaigning group Gymnasts for Change described the review as “too little too late” to lead to meaningful change in the sport under the governing body.

In a statement, the organisation said: “Ultimately the recommendations fall far short of what is needed, with reform needed beyond British Gymnastics at national and international governing body level.

“After two years of waiting, this is too little too late to change a culture of mistreatment. Every day without holistic and wholesale change, another gymnast is put at risk and these recommendations fall far short of the change needed.”