Gymnastics on Trial
Reviewed by Anne E. Stein
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVELittle Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters
By Joan Ryan
Warner Books
268 pp $13.95 
The US gymnastics landscape changed dramatically with the arrival of Romanian coach Bela Karolyi more than 20 years ago. Since 1982, American women have won 13 individual and two team medals at the Olympics, and in 1984 Karolyi-coached Mary Lou Retton became the first American to win the all-around gold. But Olympic glory has come at tremendous cost. Karolyi and other coaches produced winners through excessive training and, writes San Francisco Chronicle columnist Joan Ryan, gave rise to "a new generation of American coaches who screamed, taunted, and demanded absolute subservience." It all peaked in 1992 at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where the taped limbs and blank stares of female American gymnasts prompted a call from New York Times columnist Dave Anderson to ban the sport from the Olympics. But it's Ryan's book that has proven to be the sharpest thorn in the side of the USA Gymnastics Federation, which only recently acknowledged the serious physical and mental health issues faced by gymnasts. In 1992, Ryan spent three months researching the effects of training on elite female gymnasts. She received two national awards for her article, then took a year's leave to expand the story into a book, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters. The strain of training
It's an extremely readable and well-researched volume that quickly strips the glamorous veneer off gymnastics and figure skating. Through extensive interviews with athletes, coaches, parents, and officials, Ryan's book -- which has been updated to include both progress and lack of it in recent years -- has brought the likes of a 60 Minutes crew to observe and analyze competitions and has been cited by several physician groups calling for an end to coaching abuses. The heart of the problem is that gymnastics and figure skating have become sports performed by children. In 1976, US Olympic gymnasts averaged 5 feet, 3.5 inches, 106 pounds, and were typically 17-years-old. By 1992, they averaged 4 feet, 9 inches tall, weighed 83 pounds, and were 16-years-old. To stay in the sport, writes Ryan, the girls starve themselves, often in response to their coaches' belittling insults about their bodies. "Starving shuts down the menstrual cycle and blocks the onset of puberty. It's a dangerous strategy to save a career," she says. The medical community agrees. In July 1996, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine said, "At its worst, the sport [gymnastics] can result in serious, life-endangering physical and emotional disabilities," says Dr. Barri Katz Stryer, one of the article's authors, "We are doing [girl gymnasts] a disservice. In some ways, we are abusing them." And in the July 2000 issue of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics states that children should be discouraged from concentrating on a single sport before adolescence to avoid physical and psychological damage. Dr. Steven Anderson, chairman of the academy's committee on sports medicine and fitness, says the new policy was prompted in part by Ryan's book. Coaching abuses
Whether you're a sports fan or not, Ryan's book is fascinating. She reveals the frailties of these superstar girls and the sometimes-abusive personalities of their coaches and parents -- often in their own words, a tremendous testament to Ryan's reporting skills. The book is divided by the factors that cause damage, from injuries and eating disorders to pressure, parents, and coaches, and readers can't help but come away with grim perceptions. Ryan documents the fact that gymnast Betty Okino, then 17, competed in the 1992 Olympics with stress fractures in her back and elbow and a screw clamping a tendon to her shin. Kristie Phillips, a 14-year-old touted as the "new Mary Lou Retton" popped 12 Advils and six prescription anti-inflammatory pills each day while training with a broken wrist. When pain from a stress fracture in her ankle flared at the 1988 Olympics, gymnast Kelly Garrison, 21, pounded the ankle until it was numb -- so she could compete. The light shines heavily on elite coaches Karolyi, Rick Newman, and Steve Nunno. Says one mother, describing Newman: "He could be so cruel to the children, calling them 'fat' and 'you idiot.' She was always trying to please this abusive man. It's disgusting, all these men with their huge egos dealing with little girls." The physical training is also abusive: The average elite gymnast trains 35 to 45 hours per week. And while the muscles of children can develop like those of adults, writes Ryan, their bones can't keep pace: "Unlike their male counterparts, most female gymnasts reach their peak when they are still children, so the pounding on their still-forming skeletal structures can have long-term consequences. Some permanently damage their joints and backs. Some don't grow to full height." Parents are the girls' last defense, but often they tolerate the mistreatment because they're caught up in Olympic fantasy and don't want their daughters to be kicked out of the gym. Ryan devotes less space to figure skaters, though the stories are similar: Girls are pressured to stay thin, and disordered eating abounds. Ryan's final chapter examines changes since Little Girls was first published, and the picture is both promising and disturbing. In 1995, a former gymnast was hired to study the sport's health risks, and in 1999, she and the sport's governing body produced The Athlete Wellness Book. In addition, the 1996 women's Olympic team was a little older (17.6) and 10 pounds heavier (92.3 pounds) than the 1992 team. But just as the US was making progress, the international rules changed. The minimum age for Olympic competition was raised from 15 -- meaning that older girls needed to be just as tiny and thin to perform tricks. But because the skill requirements were raised, they had to perform more difficult tricks to continue getting high scores. Still, despite these efforts, the abusive coaching style thrives unregulated, and girls still go to torturous lengths to compete. In the end, writes Ryan, there's a lot of work left to be done. -- Anne E. Stein is the former managing editor for Inside Triathlon magazine. A cyclist herself, she has written for Sports Illustrated for Women, Bicycling Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune.
Reviewed by C.E. McLaughlin, MD, a professor of sports medicine at the University of California at Berkeley.
Our reviewers are members of Consumer Health Interactive's medical advisory board.
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First published January 19, 2001
Last updated June 18, 2007
Copyright © 2001 Consumer Health Interactive
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