The LIU gymnasts have been heard — Thoughts from Ari Saperstein on the Olympic floor final

Lane’s successor is rumored to be Dana Duckworth, who stepped down as Alabama’s head coach in 2020. That’s an entirely different story, and one I will explore, if and when, it is announced by the school. 

For now, it’s time to be glad that the LIU gymnasts had their voices and stories heard, and that the school took action.

It remains to be seen how the team will perform, as many of its members, including Syd Morris — who published the initial complaints against Lane and Courtney and who was the only LIU gymnast to make regionals this year — have either left the team or retired early. 

Danish gymnast Camille Rasmussen recently accepted a scholarship to join the LIU team. This news concerns me because many international gymnasts at LIU have spoken about the school’s poor infrastructure for international students. But I hope Rasmussen can have a successful tenure there. 

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Other gym news

Ellie Black won the Olympic Fair Play Award. If you voted for her after I posted the link recently, well done! 

NJ.com posted a story about the unrest within the Rutgers gymnastics program. 

Adria Biles was interviewed about her relationship with her famous sister, Simone. 

For Simone’s part, she was interviewed by Aly Raisman for the Olympic Channel about her experience in Paris. 

GymCastic reported that the Stars gym in Katy, Texas, will no longer serve as the senior national team training center. Stars’ other location, in Houston, will be the junior national team training center. 

Lindsey Stirling, whose music Suni Lee used for her Olympic floor routine, spoke about meeting Lee for the first time at a recent show. Stirling also posted this hilarious video of herself attempting a wolf turn in front of Lee. 

Five at The IX: Ari Saperstein 

Yep, it’s Ari again! We just love him around here. This week, he aired a two-part episode of the “Blind Landing” podcast about the Olympic floor final controversy, shedding new light on a story with a lot of dark corners. We had to chat with him about his reporting. 

The IX: This is a well-reported story. What is Blind Landing bringing to it that is new? 

AS: A few years ago I did a fellowship at “This American Life,” the popular radio show and podcast. There, I learned that even when you’re putting together a technical, deeply reported story, the stuff that makes something resonate with listeners and leave a lasting impression are the feelings you’re able to draw from interviewees. So if you look at one of our interviewees like Olympic gymnast Lieke Wevers, it was important to center new information she had to share relevant to the FIG’s questionable actions, but it felt equally important to give her the space and opportunity to talk about the emotional aspects of this. Because sports stories often can just be reduced to numbers and medals, but there’s always more at stake on a personal level when something wrong happens. 

The IX: Accountability is a major issue all around in this story. Why do you think the FIG, the organization that appears most responsible for mistakes made, has remained silent throughout this process?

AS: I don’t think we ended up including this quote in our podcast, so here’s a little behind the scenes detail for your readers: one of the interviewees, sports business professor Dr. Andrea Geurin, explained that often silence where words would be appropriate is, historically, grounded in one thing: “I think a lot of times it stems from fear,” Dr. Geurin explained. “It might be that maybe the top person in charge at the organization fears for their job … I think if we look back at the Larry Nassar situation with USA Gymnastics, there were certainly some people in charge who I think had that fear and just wanted to sweep it under the rug and they were looking out for the organization and not looking out for the athletes.”

While I don’t know what’s going through the head of the FIG leaders, I will say that Dr. Geurin’s observation makes a lot of sense for two reasons: First, because I reported a very similar story a few years that the FIG offered a number of comments on (which Lela covered for FanSided!) — whereas here, the FIG didn’t respond to any of our questions. Second, because there was a brief statement from the FIG president that was widely criticized for being extremely broad and gave the appearance of avoiding accountability. As Dr. Geurin explains in our podcast, this is a major organization making choices that go against the basic ideas of good governance. The idea that fear or self-protection can prompt otherwise sensible people to make irrational choices seems like a plausible theory here. 

The IX: On that note, what, if any, changes should be made in the future to prevent athletes from taking the brunt of a judging error? 

AS: I think just about every single commentator says it starts with the FIG taking accountability and dispelling misinformation. There’s only so much you can do to battle against faceless nameless trolls on the internet, but whether it’s the CAS ruling or TV analysts or Olympic champions, it seems universally that people close to the situation think accountability from the FIG is the first and foremost step.

The IX: Are there any similar judging fails that you would like to explore in your reporting? (In gym or any other sport).

AS: I think the history of mass corruption in gymnastics judging up until a few decades ago would be interesting to explore — the way that “vote trading” between judges used to work. And despite the questionable choices the FIG has made in the floor final situation, by all accounts they’ve made big strides in the recent past to combat that behavior, which I think is kind of fascinating.

The IX: If you had the chance to sit down with Chiles, Voinea and Barbosu, what would you ask them first? 

AS: My very dry reporting answer is: I’d really love to go through the potential ways that the FIG has violated their own code of conduct and safeguarding policies with the gymnasts and hear their reactions, or if they have anecdotal evidence that might support or debunk those violations. 

But also: I’d ask if they’d consider sharing the bronze medal.

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