I need to admit I was a little nervous when I posted, WHERE IS THE LOVE. I am not a confrontational person and I do not enjoy drama. Every response I received was very thoughtful.

I am not PRO or AGAINST USA- Gymnastics. I am PRO GYMNASTICS. I was just wondering what it will take to see the sport I love so much get back to being a positive influence and wondering why we continue to drag ourself through the dirt.

Here is a letter from someone who asked to remain anonymous when I asked if I could publish it.

Dear Tony, 

I read your article “Where is the Love?” and have a couple of thoughts for you.  I know that you don’t know me, but I have been coaching for 30+ years in the Indianapolis area which means that USAG is right in my back yard.  I have been fortunate to work with phenomenal athletes on both the men’s and women’s side of the sport.  I worked for Gene Watson for 9 years before I went to work at Sharp’s.  I was distantly acquainted with Larry Nassar.  Needless to say that I’ve had a hard time finding the “Love” in the sport for the last several years. 

I think “picking at the scab” will be a great analogy in the future, but I think it is too late to prevent a scar.  When we have celebrity athletes going on 60 Minutes and saying that they would still not allow their child to compete for USAG, we need stiches, not a band-aid.  When I watched the interview the other night, I was really hoping that Simone` Biles was going to say something (anything) encouraging about the state of our governing body, but she did not. 

I personally was crushed by what happened at Sharp’s.  I had worked either with or for Marvin since 1993.  I was the last employee to close the doors at Sharp’s when the doors were closed for the last time—after Marvin’s death, after keeping the gym opened an additional 8 weeks in order to find all of the team girls a new home-gym.  In all those years, I never saw or heard anything to make me think anything inappropriate was going on.  I will not go into the specifics, but USAG failed me as a gymnastics professional long before things came out about Larry Nassar.  I left the sport for a year.  I came back broken.  I was fortunate to have a new employer that did not care what my previous employment had been and allowed me to just help out a few days a week until I decided that I wanted to come back to the sport.  I renewed my Risk and Safety Management, which was no longer about safety, but about child abuse.  I got a background check for USAG for the first time.  I took “the new” Safesport test.  I also had to take Darkness to Light and all of the other in-house trainings that my new gym required.  Previously I had never had to have a background check for USAG.  There was no Safesport.  The USAG safety certification had been about safe gym practices, matting, and liability, not about identifying and reporting possible child molesters. 

I tell you all of this because I think it goes a long way to explaining where the Love has gone.  USAG broke a lot of hearts—including mine.  They made sweeping proclamations about how Safesport and background checks were now mandated for all pro members. They formed advisory councils to discuss gym culture.  They went through a myriad of new leaders, all of whom have fallen short.  No one in USAG is out there talking about the 100,000+ members who have never had anything brought against them.  The media has latched onto USAG as the face of American gymnastics which has vilified every gymnastics coach working in the last 6 years.  Of course the athletes should be protected, but so should the innocent professional members.  I think this is why a lot of coaches have lost the Love.   

I did something this year that I never, NEVER, thought I would do.  I made a break from USA Gymnastics.  Two years ago, I investigated the possibility of taking my club USAIGC.  Sadly, that was a bust.  This year our entire girls’ program has gone NGA.  I still have just a few Level 9/10s who are doing both because they are high schoolers and need all the exposure that they can get, but if NGA flies, I don’t anticipate going back to USAG.  Maybe someday we’ll have a perspective national team member and need the national governing body, but right now there’s just no point.  And who knows who will be our national governing body by then anyway? 

I have to be honest, I feel better going to meets this season than I have in a long time.  I’m excited about the new format for NGA Levels, and I like how if an athlete starts as an NGA Gold, but then decides that she wants to be more serious there is an easy path back into the Level program.  Maybe this is how we find the Love?  Maybe USAG needs to fold and a new organization needs to rise in its place.  I’m not suggesting that NGA be the national governing body, but I am suggesting that the only way to heal that wound may be to stitch it up, cover it, and let it rest for a while.  Until USAG is out of site, it won’t be out of mind.  The media will see to that.  And who needs that kind of negativity in our sport?  Maybe finding the Love means we need to find a new face for American gymnastics—one with less scars.

Thank you everyone who took the time to respond. I believe that the BEST DAYS of gymnastics are still ahead of us. I choose to look ahead. To learn from our mistakes and be part of a great and bright future.