Abstract
Dear reader, if you are reading this, it means you have received my invitation for tonight’s poetic ethnodrama performed in the theater of your mind. But before we start the play, I want you to reflect on what comes to mind when you think about ‘Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.’ Please keep these thoughts in mind as you experience tonight’s performance, which will start in 10 minutes.
This play, which stems from longitudinal ethnographic research, is intended to take you, the Reader, into a youth elite gymnastics club, where you will be situated alongside the cast and exposed to a poetic representation of psychological maltreatment. In this environment, the cast and I [the Primary Researcher], while wearing (happy) theatrical masks, will perform poetry to you in the form of a prologue, eight acts, one interlude, and an epilogue. The prologue provides contextual framing for the poetry acts to follow. During the interlude, the cast speaks to the audience without their theatrical masks. The epilogue includes the behind-the-scenes of psychological maltreatment, the backstage work put into this playscript, and a monologue of a gymnast asking, “What are you going to do about it?”
I want to encourage you to construct your own understanding of this ethnodrama and really try to feel what the cast is going through, as if you were one of them. In this art-based work, I will share information with you in a way that combines descriptions, interpretations, and methods, like pieces of a mosaic, giving you a complete picture over the time of the play. Through this play, I hope to create an atmosphere that touches your senses and emotions, prompt dialogue, and advance the current discourse on maltreatment in youth elite sports.
Now, please, come in and meet the co-authors, they will help you find your seat.
Keywords
Setting the Scene
Hello and welcome to tonight’s performance.
Do you need any assistance finding your chosen seat, Madam?
[The secondary authors greet the audience as they come in, acting as critical friends throughout the data analysis, on-the-spot guidance, and representation process (B. Smith & McGannon, 2018).]
Yes, that is right, this way please, the fifth row on the left. May I also offer you this (happy) theatrical mask? 1 It’s complementary to this production.
Hello girls. You are friends with the main characters, aren’t you?
‘Yes, we’re, we came to see them and support them.’
That’s lovely. Over there, at the front, those are your seats. . . .yes, I see, you’ve got your own masks. Go, go. . . Go see them!
[While all gathering, some people still in the theatre foyer purchasing the play programme, and others reading some of the pages already: The Abstract. . . But let’s leave the audience reading before the lights go out.]
* * *
Hello, Reader, it’s Michaela, the director.
2
I can see, you’re on the way to your seat, holding the mask my colleague has offered you to keep. Can you see me standing in the audience? I’m here, in a balcony box on the left. Hi! Yes, that’s me! Welcome. You’ll see me throughout the entire show tonight, in the theatre of your mind. As the ethnographer and director, I’m one of the cast members, on and off stage. You’ll see me interacting with others and with you, the Audience. Mine is the first word tonight; a monologue addressed to the gymnastics director of the club. Right, you must now excuse me; I’m going to support the rest of the cast and get ready for my first line. Before the main show starts, the co-authors will take you through the methodology we used for this art-based work.
* * *
Michaela was a participatory ethnographer, before finding her role as a playwright, poet, and director. After she received approval from the University ethics committee and the gymnastics club’s performance director, she was embedded in an environment of an artistic gymnastics club. Collecting data within the environment for this theater playscript.
There, she developed a deep understanding of this gymnastics club. She also learned about the athletes, their parents, and the members of staff within the context of this culture (Bryman, 2012). She began this study with a broad research question, aiming to gain knowledge of young elite athletes’ (i.e., 9–12 years old) transition to senior squad level through a socio-cultural lens in women’s artistic gymnastics in the United Kingdom. In line with previous research, the term “elite” refers to athletes competing at the national and/ or international level (Kavanagh et al., 2017). Within the first few months of Michaela’s immersion in the research environment, she began to narrow this research lens to factors that appeared to inhibit the athletes’ transition. In time, her focus narrowed further to coach-athlete relationships and coaches’ behaviors toward their gymnasts. It is these factors that form the majority of the results, which you, the Reader, will be exposed to in a few moments on stage.
After Michaela received informed consent from the participants, she started using a family of methods such as observations, formal and informal interviews, focus groups, field note-taking, and reflective journal (Krane & Baird, 2005). For 22 months, Michaela spent 1 to 2 days a week observing training sessions and competitions (i.e., regional and national), ranging from 2 to 6 hours in duration and resulting in a total of 1,056 hours. These observations were recorded as field notes, outlining what she observed each day. Michaela then put these notes into more coherent stories, providing a detailed account of the environment recorded in a research log of 184 pages of double-spaced text. Numerous informal talks (i.e., pockets of conversation held before, during, and after training sessions, and during breaks) are also noted as field notes. Two focus groups were conducted with gymnasts and their parents on separate occasions, lasting between 30 to 45 minutes, resulting in 45 pages of double-spaced text. Given the sensitive nature of the topic, Michaela incorporated several trauma-informed guidelines into both formal and informal interview processes to minimize re-traumatization for the cast. These guidelines included: Building trust and rapport, that is establishing a trusting relationship with participants by being transparent about the interview process and its purpose; empowering participants allowing them to have control over the interview, such as choosing the time and place, and taking breaks whenever needed; providing support resources offering information about support services after the interview (Alessi & Kahn, 2023; McMahon et al., 2023; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014, 2023). A reflexive journal of 68 pages of double-spaced text details Michaela’s thoughts, emotions, daily experiences, and responses to what she was noticing and how it could have been affecting others, situations, and the environment, and these were written each night following observations (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2019).
Now,
the lights will go out soon.
Like the cast, you may find the play challenging to experience at times–
this business of smiling, saying yes, and keeping going.
And so, if you feel it’s getting too much, not to worry; our (happy) masks are available here, on the table at the entrance, if you haven’t taken one already.
Our cast will show you how you can use the masks effectively,
just wait and see.
* * *
[Pre-show dramatic notes by a gentle piano fill the auditorium–Gnossiennes: No 1.
3
Quick, read the names of those who will take you by the hand tonight to walk you through the revelation of their experiences.]
BROOK: Female-gymnast; 10 years old; six years in training; wearing a strapped black leotard with orange details and black shorts; her hair is always in a simple ponytail, slightly messy every time, “Good enough,” she says, while wearing a fake smile. ISABELLE: Female-gymnast; 9 years old; five years in training; always wearing bright colour leotards; for today’s play, she has chosen a sleeveless, bright pink leotard with sparkles; her hair has been put in a braid and then twirled into a bun right on top of her head; as usual, she will have the same colour scrunchie as her leotard; a pair of black shorts partly covering her skinny legs. Wearing a fake smile too, looking sunny. OLIVIA: Female-gymnast; 10 years old; six years in training; she also wears bright colours leotards; today she has chosen a florescent yellow one with bright pink ornaments placed on the top half and the rest is bright pink matching her two scrunchies; wearing a pair of black shorts; she rules the game they play in a moment on stage–she always likes to say what’s on her mind. She doesn’t like to wear a fake smile. ELEANOR: Female-coach; wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a black T-shirt with a large writing “COACH” printed on the back and a warm long-sleeved top with the club logo on the front; an offstage voice, physically absent yet ever-present like some omniscient being. The narrator will help you recognise her voice during and in between the acts. MICHAELA: First author, doctoral candidate, academic participatory ethnographer-researcher, former elite gymnast, gymnastics coach, director, playwright, poet, and critical friend to the gymnasts (some of the terms are used interchangeably throughout this theatre play); wearing black leggings; a black long-sleeved sports top; and a grey hooded top (it is cold in the theatre tonight, just like in the gym); hair in a ponytail.
* * *
With these roles, Michaela was familiar with and shared a common cultural background with the coaches and athletes. Her role as a former elite gymnast and artistic gymnastics coach allowed for natural entry, familiarization with the cast, and the establishment of trust with all. Hence, these roles allowed Michaela to take on an insider and overt participant observer status; observing, participating in the club’s activities, and engaging in dialogues with immediacy as events unfolded (e.g., during gymnasts and coaches’ breaks; Atkinson, 2017). This was to Michaela’s advantage because an “outsider” may not have had this access to or knowledge of gymnastics culture. Although, this had also brought up a great challenge for her, constantly making the immensely familiar feel strange (Wolcott, 2008). Being an elite former gymnast, Michaela shared that being a gymnast was not as “black and white” as practicing daily, being taken out of school early, or not being able to participate in school activities as one may think. Some of her further reflections are interwoven in the poetry and shared as reflective journal extracts throughout the script (Etherington, 2004). To help making the familiar strange and helping her manage ontological distance (i.e., reality is believed to be subject to individuals’ experiences; Illing, 2013), we, the co-authors and critical friends, were asking Michaela thought-provoking questions such as: “How did you come to those interpretations while observing?,” ‘Is it possible this being only your own experience?,’ and “How could we look at this through a different lens?” (Smith & McGannon, 2018). Michaela was also keeping the reflective journal entries, allowing her to be critical, self-aware of her personal history, values and beliefs, and reflecting on the various roles she had in the club (Braun & Clarke, 2023).
A key part of participatory ethnography is to facilitate immersion, which was achieved by Michaela conducting her research within the patterns of the daily activities of the club. Fitting her research around these existing activities meant that she reduced her influence on the context and developed long-term strategies for research participation (Becker, 1996).
Michaela uses her own name for clarity; however, pseudonyms are used when conveying the findings and participant characteristics. These characteristics have been removed from the actors as far as possible, while maintaining sufficient details to allow for context (Owton & Allen-Collinson, 2014). Michaela portrays the participants’ stories in poetic form using composite characters, allowing for further reduction of the possibilities of identifying individual participants (Saldaña, 2011).
* * *
[All sitting. An announcer cuts through the hubbub of the audience. “Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to tonight’s performance, ‘Poetic ethnodrama through the eyes of young elite gymnasts.’ Thank you for your attention, we now encourage you to immerse yourself in the play, it is about to start.” Piano continues–Gnossiennes: No 1. The main lights gradually fade, dim lights on.]
Act 1
Preshow (Prologue)
[Curtains are drawn. The piano stops; complete silence. A spotlight picks out a woman; it’s the director herself. She is standing up, alone, in a balcony box stage-left; gripping the balustrade tightly with both hands; looking around the audience as if she is looking for someone–she finds them; she begins to speak in their direction.]
Poem I
The first time we met in person, we spoke about collaboration. We discussed it all. Agreed to see you next week Friday. A few months in the environment have passed. Wait–you said, I ‘won’t see any abuse in this club.’ So please, explain, why do I see tear after tear? [The spotlight fades. Silence.]
* * *
Act 2
[Piano notes start softly and playfully–Yeon: Happy Lake.
4
The stage area lit dimly. On stage, back-right, sitting in a circle on the floor, as if sitting in the dedicated parents’ area in the club, three girls playing their favourite board game. They are smiling; one rolling back holding her tummy laughing. A mother on stage–making Isabelle’s hair look spotless, as if a training session was to begin soon. Unexpected by some–‘GIRLS, WHERE ARE YOU!,’ a female high-pitched voice overwhelms the piano. The girls know. The mother looks up, listening to the voice. Then, quickly picking scrunchies off the floor, creeping off stage right. One by one, jumping up, rushing to collect their masks they had thrown to the corner of the stage from the previous day. Whispers run through the audience, wondering. The smoke is disrupted, moving around. Girls standing at front-centre; leotards on properly, check; hair spotless, check; ready to start, it’s 1 p.m. sharp. Each picks an A4 sheet of paper off the floor in front of them; they look at each other as if encouraging one another in the gym. Piano notes start again–Yeon: Happy Lake. Pause for a beat, then, one at a time start reading.]
Poem II
Look, she is new. Who is she, Brook? Is she going to have a different approach? Because she isn’t here as another coach. Taking care of us few? Listening too? Maybe someone we can talk to? Is she going to support us? Do you think we can tell her about stuff? Maybe she can show us some skills? She used to be us– a gymnast. Brook, let’s go and ask her– Yeah, let’s go see her! Girls, wait, we should be on bar skills. Let’s go Isabelle, come with us. Look, look, Michaela, we want to show you something too; Jumping on the beam, one by one. These are the silly moves we have been practising when no one is looking, you know? [‘OK, LET’S GO GIRLS, COME ON, YOU SHOULD BE ON BARS NOW. MICHAELA CAN SHOW YOU SOME MORE SKILLS NEXT TIME.’ And she nods Michaela’s way. Spotlight on. The director starts.] End of the session; walking behind the curtains– are you here to help with Eleanor? I was stopped and I thought– Here to help with Eleanor? Tell me more, I am listening–to a parent.
[Spotlight out. Dim lights. Piano notes stop.]
* * *
Act 3
[Soft and playful piano notes start–Raz: Ballerina.
5
The three girls start reading. Their faces grow pale as they read on.]
Poem III
A few that want to jump around, learn, and explore, receive constructive feedback on the floor. Brook and Isabelle doing their thing again– trying silly moves into the pit and on the floor, again, and again. Michaela, I want to show you something, look! Yay, that’s fantastic Brook!
[The director shows a thumbs up from the audience.]
Jumping on a trampoline, but with no one to intervene. No skills on the bars or beam, We need some time off too, to keep going through.
[Piano changes to dramatic notes at a low volume–Gnossiennes: No 3.
6
‘GIRLS, HURRY UP!’]
Tick-tock, tick-tock, with each tick growing louder. At the start of our session–
Hurry up,
you little children, we don’t have all day. We rush through the gym, oh, let’s not forget our masks. We are being watched. Always. We feel your gaze. Always. We need to know where you are. Always. We want to speak to the other girls. Look, they laugh, they smile, they even sing? We’ve done our work. You can talk to others, but you get distracted– pay attention! [Piano at higher volume.] On the beam, bars, vault, and floor, skills we’ve (not) done before. We hesitate to cheer each other on; you got this. She would shout at me if she saw me cheering, I’m sure.
Leave her alone,
she will do it! We’re muted; thoughts rushing through our heads are loud. Oh, look! She’s left the room, we can breathe, let’s show our playful faces beneath. Routines one after the other, competition around the corner. Oh, a wobble– she saw. We know what she thinks–but do I need to go again? Oh no, another wobble. She didn’t see– thanks god, she looked away. She isn’t here now, they know. If they don’t know, they want to know. We need to know, so we can breathe. Michaela, do you know where Eleanor is now?
[Masks hiding tears coming down their cheeks again. Standing on stage, lonely. The view is blurry.]
Please, we ask, come in and see behind the closed curtains. We want you to see it, so you are certain.
Oi–you–with the scruffy hair,
come here! Close the curtain or disappear!
[The smoke climbs up the stage. Stillness in the audience. Silence. Girls run off stage. One drops her mask. Dramatic piano notes fading. Lights out.]
* * *
Act 4
[Lights on. On stage, a white rectangular table surrounded by 11 burgundy cushioned chairs, as if in a room where the gymnasts all eat. The three girls back on stage. Dramatic piano notes at a low level–Gnossienne: No 1.]
Poem IV
Four hours into our training; we’re tired. We do conditioning, day in, and day out. Of course, tomorrow again. Today, everything hurts, going non-stop nearly every day. Now, ready for a snack. We think; please, we need a break.
Girls, you’ve got 30 minutes for your break,
go, have some fruit.
Dismissed.
Come back
on time,
she insists. We don’t rush out– no energy, we walk through the gym and corridor. We get to the room, where we eat, where no one is watching, us elite. No masks, no gaze. Sometimes, Michaela pops in and sees us.
[BUT “I GO SEE THEM TOO, I GIVE THEM SWEETS.” The spotlight comes on. Girls sat on the chairs looking at the director coming up on stage, as if she was walking into the meeting room to check in with them. She picks up the mask one dropped when leaving the stage, holding it, wrapped up with both arms.]
Just before the room entering, I look at my watch; Hmm, is it time for them to go back? I look back into the gym, what’s Eleanor doing? She glanced over the clock, then over the double glass door, It’s exactly five o’clock; they should start now on the vault. I reach for the door handle, and as I do, their faces freeze. It took a beat; Michaela, come in please. Hearing your adventures and seeing your happy faces. To try to keep them on; girls, what time do you need to be back? [Spotlight out. The director walks backstage.] One looks at the clock, what time is it? The other–‘Oh!’ Eyebrows lifted and eyes wide open, WE’RE LATE! She’ll tell us off. She will. I won’t finish my food, it’s ok, let’s go. No, finish it. We will wait, we’re a team. Yes, we won’t leave you behind. Finish it, we’ll pack your stuff for you. Girls, thank you, very much! Rushing back through the corridor, lockers ready to receive their thrown in lunch boxes. Girls, wait, wait for us. Back through the double glass door, tension running around the room. What did they do?–Coaches turn their heads to listen. In line, they stand. They tried explaining. Shut. Shaking her head from side to side, late! We .... Not believed. The clock is loud, screaming it’s five minutes over!
Stop talking,
I said!
If you don’t want to be here,
buzz off!
[Lights out. Piano stops.]
Act 5
Interlude (Unplanned)
[The following is unplanned; the director signals to me (the Narrator). Soft dramatic music starts–Einaudi and Hope: Experience.
7
The director comes forward, facing the audience. Holding the mask in her open palms, looking at its soulless smile. Dim lights. She begins.]
This theatre play is not a result of sharing and working through my own experiences. I’m not trying to project my own experiences onto the cast. Of course, as an ex-elite gymnast and gymnastics coach I cannot deny, however, I lived through unpleasant events during my gymnastics career. But this play is not about me. It is about the young elite gymnasts here on the stage and their experiences I had encountered. I came into this club, to be part of the environment, with content spirit and a broad area of interest in mind.
[WELL, I STILL THINK YOU ARE JUST TAKING IT ALL FROM YOUR EXPERIENCES. Silence for a beat.]
(Reflective journal, August 2021)
(. . .) Walking into the gym, smelling the chalk in the air, seeing the equipment. (. . .) Rays of the Sun are shining through the windows onto the equipment as if there was an amazing gymnastics exhibition show starting soon.
All these feelings, right at the start, on the first day.
I expected something, of course. To feel. To remember. I just need to reflect throughout. And reflect. And reflect some more; what I see/ don’t see, what I hear/ don’t hear, and what I feel/ don’t feel. To bring the unconscious into consciousness. Keep open minded to what is/ isn’t coming.
[Whisper in the audience. Brook comes forward, closer to Michaela and asks.]
Can I say something too, Michaela?
Sure, you can, please.
[Michaela shows appreciation to Brook by kindly asking the audience to listen.]
We (Brook looks behind her at the other two) would like to share with you that around this time, we said goodbye to Charlotte and Sophie because they left. They didn’t want to do gymnastics anymore. We miss them very much. We are still friends, they just didn’t want to be here in the gym.
[Olivia and Isabelle come forward also. All sat down on the stage edge, as if sitting during a break in the gym, speaking with Michaela. The girls share with the audience that other few from their group left gymnastics too. The girls then hop off the stage edge and sit with their parents in the audience. Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your attention, we are now going to proceed with a break. We will start the play again in exactly 30 minutes, thank you.]
* * *
[Ladies and Gentlemen, please be seated, we are ready to continue the play. Dramatic piano–Gnossiennes: No 4.
8
Lights on.]
Act 6
Poem V
I’m going to fall, I’m going to slip! I need more chalk! Go again, you don’t need to chalk up. Over and over. My handguards aren’t listening to me lately–Why aren’t you listening to me? At least one routine, please, listen to me. Are you ok, Brook? No, my handguards are doing what they want and don’t listen. Try again and then tell her, maybe? Do you want my handguards? That’s ok Isabelle, I’ll try again and then tell her, but she won’t believe me anyway.
Go again,
stop faffing around,
and
start doing something. Snail speed–towards the bar I go. Hands covered in chalk; I didn’t listen–I don’t want to fall.
Come here, what’s wrong?
I had enough of
nagging you this week.
Silence.
What is it?!
I think I need new handguards, I whispered.
Honestly,
why can’t they
just say it! [Dim lights. Silence.] * * *
[Dramatic piano continues–Gnossiennes: No 4.]
Act 7
Poem VI
Being successful and seeing medals;
Being fluffy with them,
won’t do it.
I get my gymnasts to the top.
I say,
if you don’t want to do it,
buzz off!
That’s it.
At least I’m giving them
attention. Asking for a toilet break, For them, at least a minute away. A little chat by the lockers, with others. But, the mask stays on, so as the gaze. Each day of the week is different; One minute she’s being sunny, and the next, hurricane, until way home. You see us smile, time to time. But do you think it’s real?
Again, I said,
do as you’re told! What do you think we’re going to say
Girls,
get on with it! when we’re 20, 30, and older? Wearing pretty masks, hiding their playful and sad faces beneath. Same sparkles on their leotards, but this is not a theatre play. [Dim lights. Silence.]
* * *
Act 8
Director’s Epilogue
[Dramatic piano notes start–Alcocer: Idea 10.
9
The director on stage.]
Poem VII
When being told off, and even before, seeing tears behind their masks, they drop, drop, drop. Not many see what I have seen; The look on their faces. The “help-me-eyes” they show through. During their break, I go see them in the room. Helping them to be back on time? Yes, I can do that, sometimes. But that is not the point. Long hours they do; in hot and cold. Tired, breathless, they look for a drop of water, not allowed. Toilet?
No,
they are not allowed to go,
we don’t have time. They wait what mood you are in first–then they ask you, Eleanor.
Stop being
awkward.
You’re just being
awkward now, Isabelle.
She’s being
awkward.
Awkward again,
aren’t you?!
Put your mask on and get on with it!
[Over the piano notes, “I SAY THAT BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT TO DO AND THEY CAN DO THE MOVES, THEY ARE JUST BEING AWKWARD.” Silence for a beat.]
If you don’t want to work hard,
I’ll move you down a group.
If you aren’t going to listen to me,
I’m not going to coach you.
And then I just leave them to it,
I had enough.
It’s like talking to a brick wall.
They won’t
listen.
[Girls, from backstage, walking down to the audience. The spotlight follows.]
Look, look, she left again; all dropped down on the floor, arms out, eyes closed. They squeeze one breath in and one out. Heads up, quick! Is she back?
[Someone in the audience whispers– “When is this going to change?” The girls taking off their masks; finding their parents. The director thanks the audience. Silence. Dramatic piano notes–Gnossiennes: No 3. Curtains open fully. End.]
* * *
Now, sitting, listening to your thoughts and piano notes levitating in the auditorium. Maybe, you thought, is this what youth sport is for? If you have taken the mask my colleagues offered to you, please put it on for a moment. Have you ever worn a fake smile; voluntarily or involuntarily concealing your true feelings?
[Pause for a beat.]
You all seem happy now, just like the gymnasts, smiling and keeping going through it.
* * *
Some from the audience are using the opportunity to speak with the cast. You left. Sat in your car, thinking. May I interrupt? Those three words, ‘Women’s Artistic Gymnastics’ I asked at the very beginning. What are your thoughts? Tell me, please.
* * *
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. I am leaving the stage curtains open for you to see this part of the culture and its processes that are a source of strain for athletes (Arnold et al., 2013). To see leaders within sport environments who commodify their athletes in a “win-at-all-cost” approach (Mountjoy, 2018) and are dominated by coach authority with a lack of athlete protection policies (Lavallee & Robinson, 2007). To see cultures that often deny, ignore, and accept abusive behaviours (Breger et al., 2019; Jacobs et al., 2017; McMahon et al., 2017). Within the extant literature, researchers have primarily focused on the processes and behaviours regarding sexual abuse in sport (e.g., Brackenridge, 1994; Owton & Sparkes, 2017). In Owton and Sparkes’s (2017), an athlete called “Bella” experienced being groomed and sexually abused by her male coach, demonstrating his position of power. In addition to the empirical evidence and followed by the conviction of the USA team doctor Larry Nassar, who was convicted of sexually abusing 256 gymnasts between 1998 and 2015, artistic gymnastics has drawn significant attention (Cervin et al., 2017; Macur, 2020). Following this sporting scandal, gymnasts from around the world (e.g., the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia) have begun to publicly share their experiences of enduring physical and psychological abuse throughout their professional sporting careers.
* * *
Although, numerous researchers have suggested that the most persistent form of abuse experienced by athletes is psychological maltreatment (e.g., Wilinsky & McCabe, 2021; Wilson et al., 2021). Research has reported that psychological maltreatment is often normalised by many cultural insiders (e.g., coaches, athletes, and parents of athletes) in sport, and is seen to be essential to producing optimal performance (McMahon et al., 2012). With the recent inquiries, for example, The Whyte Review report (Whyte, 2022), we have seen attempts to reform such toxic environments. This report, commissioned by Sport England, U.K. Sport, and the Australian Human Rights Commission, examined the allegations of mistreatment and current policies put in place for safeguarding athletes in gymnastics. With one of the policies, for example, allowing doctors and sport science practitioners to weigh gymnasts, while 11-years-olds enabled self-reporting their weight. However, using “a sticking plaster solution” regarding these destructive processes and behaviours will simply not do it (Cavallerio & Dowling, 2024). Elite child athletes are especially vulnerable to the various forms of maltreatment based on their young age and perceived adult authority (Bjørnseth & Szabo, 2018). Competing at a national and/ or international level requires a unique level of dedication and sacrifice by these young athletes and their families. Athletes may be kept from typical life experiences due to the intensity of their practices while growing up, and thus completely immersed in the sport and dependent on it for support (Brackenridge & Kirby, 1997; Smits et al., 2017). Researchers also argue that early specialisation of young athletes in sport has several consequences including burnout, decreased social development and enjoyment of the sport, and dropout (Baker, Cobley, & Fraser-Thomas, 2009).
* * *
The academic ethnographer-researcher role enabled me to provide you, the Reader, with a unique insider perspective of the gymnastics abusive environment processes and the club officials’ abusive behaviours practiced on young elite gymnasts. For you to understand, appreciate, and hear the participants’ experiences, we chose Creative Analytical Practices to represent the study findings (CAPs; Richardson, 2000a). The CAPs intend to evoke resonance and curiosity, stimulate dialogue, and encourage action thereafter. Over the last decade, a considerable amount of research has explored maltreatment in sports from various angles while representing data using CAPs (see Cavallerio et al., 2022; Smith & Arthur, 2022). An evocative ethnodrama, as seen in Cavallerio et al. (2022), for example, illustrates various perspectives of parents to the injuries their children suffered from. Using stories to provide unique insights about athletes’ experiences and their sense-making of key events and relationships may provide significant insights into their historical, current, and future health, as well as their overall wellness (Frank, 2010). Some scholars also argue that CAPs narratives and representations can be a powerful stimulus for change and can evoke multiple interpretations and understandings in the audience beyond academia while using everyday language (Cavallerio, 2022; Owton & Sparkes, 2017). As Smith (2016) pointed out, such practices also present with concrete, credible, and realistic characters, humanise lives, and stimulate imagination. With all that in mind, representing findings from our longitudinal study through poetic participatory ethnodrama (Salvatore, 2020) situated in a theatre (of your mind) while using layered accounts (Rambo Ronai, 1995), we enabled the gymnasts owning the stage without interference.
* * *
Choosing both standpoints, a story analyst and a storyteller, enabled me to place the cast’s stories under analysis using reflexive thematic analysis and consequently share these as a performative text using CAPs (Saldaña, 2008; Smith et al., 2015). I chose systematic reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019) based on my interpretive paradigm and for its flexibility. Throughout this analysis, I immersed myself in the data collected, then generated initial codes, and identified themes. By reviewing, defining, and naming these themes, I came to producing the final report (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2019). This allowed me to analyse the data inductively (e.g., new experiences) and reflexively (e.g., considering my roles within the research; Leavy, 2015). Due to the focus on understanding athletes’ subjective experiences in the gymnastics environment, I positioned myself based on constructivist and constructionist perspectives (Crotty, 1998) suggesting the cast’s realities are shaped through the interpretation of the researcher but are also collaboratively generated and interpreted with the researched. By acknowledging the active role of both the researcher and the researched in constructing reality, these perspectives offer a more nuanced and context-dependent view of how knowledge is produced and understood (Crotty, 1998). In our ethnodrama, the idea of subjective truth allows for a portrayal of maltreatment through different perspectives shaped by relational interactions rather than relying on objective observations, offering a more authentic representation of reality through the interplay of multiple viewpoints (Smith & Watson, 2010). These perspectives follow a relativist ontology and subjectivist epistemology with multiple interpretations of reality (Bunniss & Kelly, 2010). Furthermore, it is recognised that athletes have their own unique experiences of the maltreatment in the sport, which are not necessarily experienced or interpreted and have the same effect in the same way by everyone (Sparkes & Smith, 2014).
* * *
Taking this ethnodrama, ethnographic research and drama together, we offer a playscript that presents a selection of dramatized stories that are collected through ethnographic methods (e.g., interview transcripts, field notes; Saldaña, 2011). Michaela told us, the co-authors, that she chose ethnodrama with the participants performing poetry to ‘embrace the ineffable. It allows audiences to encounter multiple truths and provides space for them to draw their own conclusions about what they have experienced. The performance of data catalyses the audience’s construction of meaning and encourages their active engagement so that the analysis of data continues well beyond the performance event itself’ (Salvatore, 2020, p. 1046).
* * *
Within CAPs, poetic inquiry has been found to be powerful, moving, and visceral (Lahman et al., 2019; Sparkes et al., 2003). Sparkes et al. (2003) noted that poetic representations have “the power to touch us where we live, in our bodies, allowing us to step into the shoes of others and make connections” (169). In recent years, the presence of poetry has increased in sport and physical education literature (e.g., Åkesdotter et al., 2024a; Culver & Werthner, 2018). Åkesdotter et al. (2024a) used poetic representation to explore the life story of “Lisa,” an elite individual sport athlete, and her experiences of eating disorder including seeking and receiving psychiatric treatment. In line with Åkesdotter et al. (2024a), in our study, we use poetry as a means of data representation as opposed to data analysis (Richardson, 1993). Poetry has been used as data analysis and as a tool giving shape to the research design (Richardson, 1993). However, while reluctant to direct you, the Reader, on how to interpret the performed poetry, I began with traditional qualitative research methods (e.g., observations, interviews) and formed the poetry from the data collected. I hoped to maintain the tone and prominence of each individual. While tied to poetic devices such as pauses, repetition, sound, and off-rhyme, I choose the ordering of phrases (Richardson, 2000b, 2003; Sparkes, 2002). With the opportunity to witness the gymnasts occasionally smiling, laughing, and seeing their joyful personalities, I decided to portray this as a rhythm and rhyme in the poetry (Cheney, 2001). From conducting this study, analysing its data, to representation using CAPs, striving for rigour in our research methodology was fundamental. Subsequently, we used the following criteria to judge its quality from different perspectives: within the poetic representation, drawn upon Pelias (1999) and Richardson (2000b), for example, “Does it make a substantive contribution and does it further empathy, understanding, and calls for action?” From an applied perspective, for example, “Are the stories readable and accessible to an applied audience?,” ‘Do the stories advance our understanding of maltreatment in artistic gymnastics?’ (Sparkes & Douglas, 2007).
* * *
“What are you going to do about it, Michaela?” (Olivia)
Our next performance is scheduled for Monday at 1:00 P.M. next week in a theater of the Reader’s mind. All the invitations have been sent out, but please pass the message on to your colleagues, friends, and family, there are plenty of seats left. Unfortunately, there are many who are not aware of psychological maltreatment in youth elite individual sports, and still, many who can make a substantial difference to the current and future athletes’ lives.
This study offers a unique insight into young elite athletes’ perceptions, challenges, and experiences of psychological maltreatment in artistic gymnastics. The aim of this poetic ethnodrama is not to impose meaning or directions on how to interpret the cast’s experiences within this toxic environment of the culture. However, it is anticipated that it may result in responses and start dialogues about the reflexive interpretations one creates from the poetry, but also from one’s private experiences within these abusive sporting cultures. It is hoped that this theater play encourages athletes themselves, parents, and support staff (e.g., leaders, coaches, applied practitioners) to reflect, create, and support a dialogue with action thereafter.
With such a multimodal format using poetry, imaginary theater, and layered accounts to represent the results of our study, it provides a chance creating resources that could be used in different educational and professional (e.g., sport psychology, creative writing, coaching) settings.
* * *
(Reflective journal, June 2023) Rays of the Sun were shining through the windows onto the equipment as if there was an amazing gymnastics exhibition show starting soon–but it wasn’t, I was given a ticket to a very different show.
* * *
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Portsmouth ethics committee.
Ref. number: SHFEC 2021-063
Consent to Participate
Informed consent was obtained from all participants aged 16 years and older.
Informed assent was obtained from all the participants aged 16 years and under.
The gatekeeper also gave a consent on behalf of the organization itself for the purpose of access to the premises.
Consent for Publication
Informed consent for publication was provided by the participants.
