Former Olympian Dominique Moceanu Spills On The Dark Side Of Gymnastics
We know the grueling world of professional gymnastics isn't all sunshine and rainbows, but between the glittery leotards and those gorgeous acrobatic flips through the air, it seems pretty darn close. But, after we chatted with Dominique Moceanu, '96 Olympic gymnast and member of the only women's gymnastics team to ever win team gold, we found out there's a whole lot more going on than what meets the purple eyeshadow-covered eye.
In her memoir, Off Balance, Dominique not only discovers she has a secret sister born without legs and was given up for adoption, but finds out that her once-estranged sibling also became a gymnast after being inspired by Moceanu's Olympic performance — all without knowing they were related. Incredible and insane, sure, but for gymnastics fans, that's not the most shocking part of the book. The former Magnificent Seven member, who for many of us is easy to recall as that tiny 14-year-old girl waving from the podium, puts famed coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi on blast for their allegedly abusive methods of coaching she experienced as a child while training for the Olympic Games.
As Team USA competed for its second women's team gold today, the former competitor offered up some input about the state of gymnastics and her thoughts on the way it's being run. From humiliation and being singled out to training for months on an untreated fractured tibia, Dominique experienced one hell of a ride. And, according to her, that friendly mustachioed man who hops on screen every four years at gymnastics meets might not be so friendly, after all.
Your memoir is shocking. Were you scared to say some of what's in your book?
"I knew in my heart if I was going to write a memoir. I had to bring it, and not simply talk about my highlights and paint over the ugly parts. I thought that I owed it to the fans, and I owed it to the gymnastics community to put it out there, to spark dialogue, and for people to know the reality and the truth because so many people are afraid to speak out. It's very political. We need to raise questions [about] gymnastics programs at the elite level ... because right now, there's a lot of methods that are, which appear to me, un-American."
What sorts of methods are those?
"When you're giving Márta Károlyi, the national team coordinator, pretty much all autonomy and unchecked power, I think that's dangerous. There are no repercussions and there's no accountability when you do that. So, a lot of people feel that it is a lot like a dictatorship, especially those on the inside, but many people will never say that publicly because they're too afraid."
Do you see other gymnasts today who seem to be going through the same issues and struggles that you personally faced?
"My situation was a little different. I was Romanian and I'm sure that had to play into the situation with the Károlyis; they used that to their advantage and used my father in sentimental ways and his violent behavior to their advantage. But, I think there are undertones still of the old Károlyi ways and methods in the women's elite program ... U.S.A. gymnastics puts them front and center in every televised major gymnastics event, and I think that takes away from the sport, rather than putting past Olympic champions and putting more of them in the analysis position. I think making them the headline and the main focus of every gymnastics broadcast is not a good thing for our sport."
Photo: Robert Chapman
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