“It is a sport in which screaming insults at children is considered an accepted motivational technique, in which competing with severe injuries is the norm . . . and in which abuse, broadly defined, is standard.”

You could be forgiven for thinking this passage was written about American football or almost any other US sport, given how succinctly it defines the exploitation and abuse seemingly endemic to this country’s athletic cultures. Yet the passage isn’t about football — it is a description of gymnastics by former national champion and producer of Athlete A Jennifer Sey.

This will come as no surprise for anyone who has viewed the recent Netflix film Athlete A or ESPN’s 30 for 30 podcast series Heavy Medals. The stories depicted in both these documentaries are a shock to most Americans. Athlete A follows a team of investigative journalists from the Indianapolis Star as they chase and ultimately break the tragic story of USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University team doctor and convicted abuser Larry Nassar’s sexual assault and abuse of over 250 girl athletes. The documentary details the culture of cruelty that was created and sustained in elite-level gymnastics in USA Gymnastics — one of the most prominent national governing bodies of sport in the world — and how athletes who refused to stay silent took on this system.