USA Gymnastics introduces virtual event sanctions

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., October 22, 2020 – Today, USA Gymnastics announced multiple ways to hold competitive gymnastics events for the 2020-21 season, including virtual event sanctions and a free platform for hosting virtual meets: 

• USA Gymnastics continues to sanction live, in-person events, subject to local regulations. For the 2020-21 season USA Gymnastics has already issued approximately 1,100 event sanctions to date.
• USA Gymnastics is now providing sanctions for virtual events on a number of different platforms, including Zoom, Skype and Google Meet, ensuring that even more athletes are able to compete despite complications created by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
• For the 2020-21 season, USA Gymnastics will also be providing members free access to the Flyp10 virtual meet platform, which is integrated with USA Gymnastics’ Meet Reservation system. Using Flyp10, participants will be able to upload HD-quality recordings of their real-time performances for immediate scoring by judges and keep track of rolling scores and placement throughout the meet. 

“We understand how important competition is to our athletes and member clubs,” said Stefanie Korepin, USA Gymnastics Chief Programs Officer. “Virtual event sanctions will provide gymnasts across the country the opportunity to compete and receive feedback from official USAG judges, even if in-person events are not feasible in their area. While this may not be a traditional competition season, it can still be a meaningful one, and we’re excited to provide this service for our community.”

Athletes of all levels across all disciplines will be able to compete through sanctioned virtual events, and gymnasts will also be able to use their scores from sanctioned virtual events for level mobility.

To help meet directors facilitate virtual competitions, USA Gymnastics has created Virtual Playbooks for each discipline:

• Acrobatic
• Men’s Artistic
• Women’s Artistic
• Rhythmic
• Trampoline and Tumbling

USA Gymnastics-sanctioned virtual and in-person events should always follow local public health guidelines and restrictions and are governed by USA Gymnastics’ discipline-specific Rules and Policies, judging criteria, and Safe Sport Policy. While meet directors have the flexibility to use a number of platforms to host virtual meets, it is important to note that the process of sharing of live video and recordings must comply with USAG’s Safe Sport Policy.

USA Gymnastics announces ‘USAG Development Program’ as new name for the Junior Olympic Program

INDIANAPOLIS, October 21, 2020 – USA Gymnastics today announced that “USA Gymnastics Development Program” will be the new name for the development program formerly known as the Junior Olympic program.

USA Gymnastics made the decision to change the program name following increased restrictions around the use of the title ‘Junior Olympic’ earlier this year. No substantive programming changes will accompany the change in name.

“USA Gymnastics remains committed to supporting athletes of all levels across all disciplines as they strive to reach their goals in and out of the gym,” said Stefanie Korepin, Chief Programs Officer. “Under the USA Gymnastics Development Program, we will continue to provide the same top-tier competitive structure and programming initiatives that our community members have come to expect, while looking for new ways to innovate and adapt, as we explore opportunities to improve the gymnastics experience for all participants.”

This summer, USA Gymnastics issued a crowdsourcing request to the gymnastics community and received hundreds of suggestions for renaming the program. Though the organization held a public vote in August and announced a winning submission, concerns about the name’s acronym ultimately led USA Gymnastics to opt instead for another popular submission, the USA Gymnastics Development Program.

Recovering from Injury – Return to Gymnastics Smarter, Stronger, and Safer

Sep 30, 2020 12:30 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

https://usagym.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lEeksW2bTOy0RQiucXZ0eA

Dr. Emily Sweeney will be doing a talk on how coaches can help their athletes return to the gym safely after injury.

If you have been wondering about the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and who they are, feel free to visit this page for individual bios, as well as a “Meet the Team” video from Virtual National Congress.

USA Gymnastics is excited to share that an Athletes’ Council webpage has been created under ‘About’ on USAG’s website (link below). Visitors can learn more about the role of the AC, how it is structured, and who currently represents each discipline. More importantly, athletes will be able to quickly and easily identify who their representatives are, and we are working to add contact information to streamline the process of getting in touch with AC reps. To increase transparency, meeting minutes will also be available from this page.

https://usagym.org/pages/aboutus/pages/athletescouncil.html

USA Gymnastics will allow for sanctioned events to continue for the 2020/2021 season.  Meet directors and clubs will be permitted to host sanctioned events, provided that the event can be conducted in a manner that is in compliance with their local government guidelines and laws. Please visit our Coronavirus webpage for updates and resources from USA Gymnastics. 

Sanction forms can be found here on the USA Gymnastics Member Services webpage.  As our IT department is working to update the forms with some additional items, the sanction request form does still list 2019/2020.  Please note that sanctions for 2020/2021 will be accepted on these forms until the updated forms can be updated on the website.

Please also note that currently a task force is working to compile sanctioning guidelines to assist meet directors in hosting events.  We anticipate these guidelines to be published and readily available for the membership by the start of season, August 1, 2020.  Any change to this anticipated date will be communicated to you in a timely basis.

In order to learn from the mistakes of the past and the mishandling of the horrific abuse perpetrated by Larry Nassar, we must listen with open hearts to Maggie’s story, and the experiences of other survivors – so that we can better understand the impact it had, and the circumstances that led to it and enabled it for too long.

 Because of the bravery of Maggie and other survivors who have come forward, there have been transformational reforms across the sport.  Within USA Gymnastics, under an entirely new leadership team, we have implemented stronger policies and preventative measures, launched multiple educational efforts, and made sweeping organizational, leadership and personnel changes.  Most importantly, we have prioritized changing the sub-culture within our community that allowed this to happen.  We owe these survivors an incredible debt of gratitude for sharing their stories, and igniting these changes across the sport.

 And yet, despite these changes, we recognize that the work is not done.  We must keep listening, keep evolving and keep improving – and we are committed to doing so.

Dear USA Gymnastics Members,

Over the past several weeks, we have been searching for how to respond to the gravity of events unfolding across the nation. The recent killings of unarmed Black people – George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, among others – have deeply affected us all, and have sparked a national conversation around the systemic racial injustice that continues to plague our country.

On June 1, we unequivocally affirmed that Black lives do matter, and that we stand in solidarity with the Black community and with all of those who fight for racial and social justice. The responses to our statement highlighted two key issues we would like to address:

First, some in the gymnastics community think that we, as an organization, should not talk about racism and injustice, either because of the nature of our organization’s purpose or because of our historical failure to protect athletes from abuse. While we understand this concern, and know that we must continue our mission to strengthen protections for athletes, we respectfully disagree.

As a national sports federation, we believe we have a responsibility to use our platform to stand for what we value most. We deeply value the diversity in our community, and strive to create an environment that is more welcoming and inclusive. We need to embrace discussion of sensitive topics in order to do that.

Additionally, we fully recognize that this organization has failed our athletes and the gymnastics community, and it will take more time – and much change – for us to earn your trust. We are working to make that change happen, and to prove to you that we are committed to transforming this organization. We have new leaders, new staff, new policies, and new priorities – which include a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, in addition to our renewed dedication to athlete safety. Taking a stand against injustice is part of those commitments, and requires that we lend our collective voice to be part of the demand for change. So, while this stance is different than what you might expect from the USA Gymnastics of years ago, we think that is a good thing.

Secondly, some have said that our statement of solidarity is not enough, that we must do more. We agree. It is not enough.

We know that we must start with listening, particularly to our community members of color, and learning from their experiences. Over the last several weeks, we have heard many stories of overt and subtle racism within gymnastics, and the toll it can take on athletes, parents, coaches, judges, and club owners. We thank those who have shared their experiences for their vulnerability and bravery, and we encourage everyone in the gymnastics community to reflect on these stories.

We also know that the recent brutality did not occur in a vacuum; it is part of a much larger system of racism and injustice that will take all of us to dismantle. We know that to be part of the solution, we must first look inward. We must look at ourselves with a critical eye, to see how unconscious bias impacts our individual perspectives and the gymnastics community as a whole.

As part of that effort, we are taking the following actions:

• We will require implicit bias training for USA Gymnastics staff and leadership positions, and will endeavor to make similar training available to all members.
• We will work with a credible researcher to analyze the role of implicit bias in judging.
• We will use our platforms to amplify the voices of our community members from traditionally underrepresented groups, in order to share their experiences more broadly and facilitate continued conversation across the gymnastics community.
• We will strengthen our internal hiring practices for both employees and contractors, to ensure that we are more intentional and proactive in seeking out staff, contractors, and business leaders from underrepresented groups.
• Juneteenth (June 19th) will be a day of reflection for USA Gymnastics staff going forward. We are encouraging our staff to spend this day listening and learning, and finding ways to commit to concrete action steps to become better allies and advocates. We invite member gyms and clubs to recognize this important day in the history of our nation in their own way.

These steps are just the beginning, a place to start. We are committed to continuing this work, so that we can collectively create an organization and a gymnastics community that is more respectful, empathetic, equitable and inclusive. And we ask that you, our community, join us in that effort.

Governor Scott has given approval for gymnastics clubs to open.  Stay safe.

https://usagym.org/PDFs/About%20USA%20Gymnastics/covid/safereopening.pdf

Please see below a statement from the National Office.  

"With the postponement of the Olympic Games now official, there are a number of resulting impacts to our community, particularly around events that would have occurred this year, that are still unclear. We are working through contingency plans and hope to provide an update as soon as possible. But, we also know that any new plans will be tentative at best, until we have a better idea of how long this continuing pandemic will affect us. 

We are in the process of exploring alternative dates for events that have been impacted by the Coronavirus and the postponement of the Tokyo Games. Specifically, we are working with the USOPC and the St. Louis Sports Commission to reschedule the Olympic Trials, once the new dates for the Olympics Games are set. We are hopeful that we will be able to hold Olympic Trials in St. Louis in 2021. We are also exploring rescheduling the 2020 GK U.S. Classic, 2020 U.S. Championships, 2020 USA Gym Champs and 2020 National Congress and Tradeshow sometime in July or August, assuming it will be safe and prudent to hold events at that time.

As you can imagine, working through the rescheduling of these events, and the details of each, is challenging and complex, so we truly appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate through this. 

As soon as new information is available, we will share it with you.” 

All Regional Championships have been cancelled.  Vermont State Championships is also cancelled.  Check with your club for entry refunds.

All regional clinics for JO and Xcel are cancelled.

All Meets have been cancelled effective immediately through the end of March.  Sectional 3 is cancelled.

The Vermont State Meet has been postponed until further notice.  The Bellows Falls High School has cancelled the site as an place to host.  We are exploring options for all gymnasts and are waiting to hear what will happen with Regional competitions to help make our final decisions.

We will revisit the topic in a week to see what transpires and make decisions that are appropriate for everyone at that time.  

We have discussed possible dates of March 28 or April 4 for Xcel Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Level 7-10. 

Thanks for your support and understanding as the situation changes hourly.

We will proceed with the Sectional at Kingdom as planned on Sunday.

Sunday March 15th

Sectional 3 at Kingdom

Session 1 - NLG and Kingdom

8:30am - open stretch

8:45am - March in

10:45am - Awards

Session 2 - Sunrise, Brattleboro, Champlain Valley, Central VT

11:45am - open stretch

12pm - March in

2:30pm - Awards 

Sectional 1 at Regal has a 15 minute change for Session 2 and 3

Session 2  - Open stretch now at 11:15am

Session 3 - Open stretch now at 3pm

Jill and Peter Vanderpot voted winners of the Vermont State Service Award

Regal Gymnastics Academy voted Vermont JO Club of the Year

Gail McGann is the Award winner for Vermont and Region 6

The Green Flag Award was created to honor a NAWGJ member who has made outstanding contributions to NAWGJ who also promotes professionalism and demonstrates leadership.