Nicole’s scent of torment
FORMER England gymnast Nicole Pavier has told of the nightmares she still suffers – years after being abused in the sport.
She has also revealed that even now she feels “terrified” and “physically sick” when she smells the perfume worn by her coaches.
Pavier, who is 26 and works as a nurse, was one of more than 400 witnesses to provide testimony to the Whyte Review into the mistreatment of athletes within the sport.
She said: “When I was very young there was physical abuse, forcing me to physically do skills I was terrified of doing.
“Or forcing me to train on stress fractures in my back when I was crying in pain and not being believed. I wasn’t tied to the bar but we have these things called straps that are strapped up.
“And I was on that bar for so long that the blood was coming through my gloves and I was forced to continue.”
Pavier said she left that club in Bristol and moved to another in Nottingham, where the abuse was more psychological.
“Being made to feel like I was never good enough and then a lot of extreme weight management or weight-shaming techniques,” she told the Press Association.
“By the end of my career, I was medically retired with fractures in my spine and a severe eating disorder.
“I spent that last year of my career in hospital having operations and also getting treatment for an eating disorder that didn’t really sort itself out until I was 22, 23 years old.”
Pavier says to this day she suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder, adding: “I still have weird smell responses to the perfume my coaches wore.
“It makes me physically sick – like I’m just that terrified still.
“It has a massive knock-on impact on the rest of your life.”
She now wants a register to be set up allowing parents to see if coaches had ever been suspended as part of a safeguarding investigation.