About Us

The Gymnast Parent Alliance (GymPal) is a UK-based parent and advocacy organisation that emerged during the gymnastics safeguarding crisis of 2020 but had already been working to blow the whistle on abuse in gymnastics for several years prior to that point. It was formed by parents who had experienced or become concerned about abusive, harmful and unsafe practices within gymnastics, particularly the difficulties families faced when raising concerns with clubs and governing bodies.

Its work has developed considerably since then:

• Supporting gymnasts and families affected by abusive or harmful coaching and helping parents navigate safeguarding concerns.
• Advocating for cultural change in gymnastics, particularly around the normalisation of practices that can be harmful to children.
• Giving parents and survivors a voice, including ensuring that lived experience is represented in discussions about safeguarding and reform.
• Challenging British Gymnastics and other sporting bodies where GymPal believes policies, complaints procedures or safeguarding arrangements are inadequate.
• Contributing to policy and reform discussions. GymPal was involved in the British Gymnastics Reform ’25 process and described itself as a “critical friend”—supportive of genuine progress but willing to challenge where necessary.
• Participating in independent evaluation and consultation. The Wagstaff evaluation of Reform ’25 lists GymPal among the organisations engaged as part of its assessment of reform in British gymnastics.

Its relationship with British Gymnastics

An important point is that GymPal is independent of British Gymnastics.

In our 2023 Reform ’25 statement, we explained that we had held numerous meetings with British Gymnastics CEO Sarah Powell and other senior leaders, contributing views on policies, processes and campaigns. BG itself described GymPal’s contribution as being grounded in the lived experiences of its members.

This relationship has not meant that GymPal has simply endorsed BG. For example, when BG published its banned and expelled coaches list in September 2023, GymPal publicly expressed “profound” disappointment, arguing that several coaches who had been subjected to sanctions for emotional or physical abuse were missing. This was reported by the BBC, ITV and Guardian.

GymPal’s wider significance

GymPal sits between a parent-support organisation, survivor-informed advocacy group and critical stakeholder in gymnastics reform.

This is particularly significant because parents occupy an awkward position in gymnastics safeguarding. They are often the adults who see the consequences of what happens in training, but historically their concerns could be dismissed as being overprotective, difficult or simply unhappy with coaching decisions. GymPal has consistently argued that parents’ observations and experiences are an important safeguarding resource rather than an obstacle to elite sport.

Our 2025 contribution to the final Reform ’25 report emphasised the continuing importance of survivor voices, parental perspectives and grassroots experience in determining whether reform is actually embedded in everyday gymnastics.