Cath Sykes talks to Emma Spence, Artistic Gymnast, Team Canada, about creating safer cultures in gymnastics.
Emma Spence is a Canadian artistic gymnast. She represented Canada at the 2022 World Championships and won a bronze in the team event. She also won the all-around and balance beam bronze medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
In this video, she discusses her experiences with Cath Sykes, a Safeguarding Adults in Sport lead at The Ann Craft Trust.
Emma describes her athletic journey, and explores how a club’s culture and environment can influence how athletes develop and participate in their sport or activity.
#SaferCultureSaferSport – More Resources
#SaferCultureSaferSport is a campaign for sport & activity organisations to create safer cultures. A safer culture is one in which welfare, safety & wellbeing are at the heart of a club’s values & actions.
Unhealthy and toxic cultures in sport and activity increase the risk of abuse and impacts welfare, safety and wellbeing.
Participants, athletes, volunteers and staff should feel empowered to recognise and report concerns without fear or judgement.
To create a safe culture, organisations must listen, learn and lead.
We’re asking organisations to commit to focusing on and improving their cultures. The #SaferCultureSaferSport campaign is here to provide you with the tools you need to help.
Get Involved with #SaferCultureSaferSportVideo Transcript Below
Catherine Sykes
Good afternoon. My name’s Cath Sykes, and I’m one of the safeguarding adults and sports managers at the Ann Craft Trust. And this afternoon I’m delighted to be with Emma Spence, who is going to be talking about her experience in gymnastics. So Emma, would you like to introduce yourself?
Emma Spence
Hi, I am a Canadian National team member for gymnastics and an NCAA gymnast at the University of Nebraska.
Catherine Sykes
The reason we’re having this conversation is because I heard you speak last year at the Gymnastics Symposium in Liverpool. When I was listening to you, your story really struck home. You were talking about how the culture and the environment of a club and a training practice can really have such powerful influence on the way you develop and participate in your sport. I wanted to give you the opportunity to share your story so we can hear about your experience and see how that links into some of the work we’re doing about creating a safer culture.
Emma Spence
So I’ll explain a little bit of my gymnastics journey for you. So I started when I was seven years old. I did pre competitive and then I started competing about a year later.
I really enjoy gymnastics. I started it because I love doing it. My sisters also did it. So it was like a family activity for us and it was just something I loved doing. I didn’t care about the scores. I didn’t care about what the judges gave me. It was just doing it because I enjoyed it and I love learning new skills, being around my friends and just everything about this sport at the time. As I got older and started competing more, I joined the national team when I was 13 years old and I’ve been on it ever since.
And there’s been times that I lost my love for the sport and that passion for it just because of the environment I was in was toxic. It was just not enjoyable for me, because of the external pressures of everyone and just the culture in itself. So I ended up losing my love for the sport and I really didn’t want to do it anymore. I was considering quitting right after Olympic trials back in 2021, after COVID, but I decided I’d give it one more chance and I’d do NCAA gymnastics because everyone says how fun that is and how much more enjoyable it is. And usually people do find their love for the sport again if they come out of a situation that I was in.
So I committed to the University of Nebraska and I started here in the fall of 2021. When I came here, I wasn’t a big fan of gymnastics. I told my coaches: “Just so you guys know, I’m not enjoying what I’m doing and I want to learn how to be able to. And I know that you guys have that reputation of being able to help people find their love for it again so.”
It took me at least a couple months, maybe at least six months of getting used to it and working with these new people. I just I absolutely love it now. And the people that I’m around are so good for me. The culture here is amazing and that’s what really helped me find my love for the sport again. Just the people caring for you and wanting what’s best for you, no matter what has just had a huge impact on me.
And once I was in that new mental space it with my gymnastics, I decided to take a go and try competing for Team Canada again. I competed at the Commonwealth Games this last summer. And then I end up competing at World Championships. So I’m back to competing for Team Canada regularly after finding that love for the sport again. And just because I’m enjoying what I’m doing, it makes it so much more worthwhile for me.
And once I was in that new mental space it with my gymnastics, I decided to take a go and try competing for Team Canada again. I competed at the Commonwealth Games this last summer. And then I end up competing at World Championships. So I’m back to competing for Team Canada regularly after finding that love for the sport again. And just because I’m enjoying what I’m doing, it makes it so much more worthwhile for me.’
Catherine Sykes
Thank you for sharing your story. One of the things that you mentioned to me previously, was that although you were not enjoying where you were going and, as you said there was a toxic culture, you stuck it out because you were getting results. Did you at the time to think that that was something that you had to go through to achieve those results yes?
Emma Spence
That’s basically the main reason why I was going through it. I thought it was OK and honestly it’s almost like it’s normal with the sport of gymnastics which is what was really difficult because I was still getting good results by being treated the way I was by being in the environment I was in. Even though it wasn’t very enjoyable, I was still getting the results that I was wanting so I thought that it was OK and I thought it was normal for that to be happening to me.
Catherine Sykes
Did you think other people felt the same as you or do you think it was your situation?
Emma Spence
No, I know a lot of gymnasts that have gone through the same thing within my club or within my federation that I’ve just experienced. Similar things and felt the same way, but overall we were all getting the results that we were wanting and we were competing well so we just thought it was OK and it was normal.
Catherine Sykes
If you could go back and change one thing, what would it be?
Emma Spence
I think it would just be to be more mindful of everything going on around me and just making sure that what I’m doing is something that I’m enjoying and that I want to be doing because I realised that when I wasn’t doing it because I enjoyed it anymore it was just a habit and I that’s what made me start not enjoying it anymore. It felt like something that I had to do and not something that I wanted to do.
Catherine Sykes
It’s really difficult trying to describe what a good safe culture looks like. What sort of things do you think that your current club created that made a more welcoming inclusive atmosphere?
Emma Spence
A couple things that I’ve had the chance to experience since being here at college is just the atmosphere of the coaches, they’ve been so supportive no matter what it is, if its academics, if it’s just my life outside of the gym or if it’s practise. Whatever it is, they’re always supportive and there to help no matter what. There’s also just a lot more resources that I find has been very helpful and they all work together. So the coaches work with nutritionists they work with the mental performance coaches and everyone is like a big team so it’s not like it’s one person against another person. Everyone’s working for your best interest and working together so that you can be the best version of yourself.
Catherine Sykes
That sounds really good and like a personal plan so you have this whole team creating that support and working together to help you achieve.
Emma Spence
Everything’s very centred on the well-being at the athlete and it is that which comes before the sport itself, which I think is very important because if you’re not in a good mental state overall, it’s going to be very hard to perform and do your sport the best you can be.
Catherine Sykes
Absolutely. You’re very open and honest about your situation and willing to share your experience with others. You’re involved in promoting a safer sport. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
Emma Spence
I work as part of the FIG safeguarding working group FIG (Federation Internationale de Gymnastique) is the international governing body of gymnastics. We meet about every month or every couple months now and it’s 15 gymnasts from around the world that get together. We’re active or retired athletes. We just talk about things in the culture that we would like to see change or that we know other people want to see change. And we try and come up with different ways to just change the culture of the sport. Because ultimately, if that starts to change and everything around that starts to change, then everyone will be able to enjoy the sport more. And that’s what we want to see overall, just everyone being able to actually enjoy the sport. because I’ve learned that when you’re in a good environment, gymnastics can be so much more fun. And we just want everyone else to be able to experience that as well.
Catherine Sykes
Have you been able to see some of the really positive impacts of that already?
Emma Spence
Yes. So far, one thing that we did was we created 10 golden rules of gymnastics. That was something big that we brought up at World Championships this year. There were posters everywhere. So all the gymnasts from around the world were able to see the work that we put together and just see that those 10 rules were not just focused on just gymnastics. But it’s wellbeing, the way you’re being treated, the way you’re treating yourself, all of that together. So we really want those key messages to stand out for everyone.
I had the opportunity to speak at the FIG Safeguarding Conference. So I was able to share those key messages with everyone. And yeah, just share what we’ve been working on. We’ve also had a webinar last summer. So people from around the world were able to listen to what we had to say about that as well.
Catherine Sykes
That’s fantastic. I remember seeing the poster and the 10 rules, and what I really liked about it is how you could tell it was the voice of the gymnasts who put that together. It wasn’t from top down, it was about hearing the voices of yourselves, which is really important.
Emma Spence
Yeah, I agree.
Catherine Sykes
If you had one final message, what would it be? At The Ann Craft Trust, we work on helping national governing bodies of sport and activity work towards building safer and inclusive cultures where people feel able to have their voices heard. What would you say to encourage other sports to really focus on their culture? What message would you like to give them?
Emma Spence
I would say to make sure that they’re centring the athletes. So make sure that their health and their safety is the top priority and make sure that they’re just doing well overall. Because if the athlete is not in a good place, mentally or physically, they’re not going to be able to do well in the sport. So I think if people really prioritise them being healthy, being happy, and just being in a good place, then they’re going to be able to thrive even more in the sport. So another thing, I guess would just be making sure they’re enjoying themselves.
Catherine Sykes
It has to be all about the person, doesn’t it? And having that support around people. Well, thank you ever so much for joining us today. Best of luck with your career. Do you stay in contact with us and we look forward to hearing from you more soon.
Emma Spence
Thank you so much.