The Socialization of Pain and Injury in Elite Women’s Gymnastics

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:28:00 -0400

Originally written in 2009, Muhlenberg College Communication & Body Politics course.

In the last quarter century, women’s gymnastics has ranked as one of the two most popular U.S. women’s sports in respect to media coverage and viewership (Chisholm, 2002). During the same era, two U.S. female gymnasts at the Olympic level have died from medical problems related to the sport – Christy Henrich from complications of anorexia nervosa and Julissa Gomez from complications of spinal trauma due to a vaulting injury (Tofler, Stryer, Micheli & Herman, 1996). The construction of the female gymnast in the media frames the body as a site of contemporary fascination. The abnormal incidence of injury in female gymnasts training at the elite level is comorbid with the media depiction of pain and injury as normative. Contemporary research and exposés of the sport have revealed the pressures and politics that have socialized pain and injury as a part of the institution of women’s gymnastics. Foremost, the framing of the body as a site of national pride in media portrayals of women’s gymnastics has labeled injury or vulnerability as an obstacle to overcome and reveal bravery. Additionally, the pressures placed on athletes by adults, and the abusive nature of intensive training and manipulative coaches reinforces the notion of pain as acceptable in women’s gymnastics. This paper will review current literature on women’s gymnastics and the pressures on elite athletes and outline a proposal for analyzing media representations of the sport. I hypothesize that the media reinforces pressures placed on elite gymnasts by adults and the institution of USA Gymnastics, and that it additionally constructs the female gymnast body as a site of both national pride and anxiety.

The irony of the label “women’s gymnastics” is that the body of the sport is that of a child, not a woman. In the past quarter century, since Nadia Comaneci became the face of the sport in 1976 when she scored the first perfect score at the Olympic Games at the age of fourteen, the body of women’s gymnastics has become smaller and younger. The increasing technical requirements of the sport, as mandated by the Gymnastics International Federation, have given smaller athletes the competitive edge. When the minimum age for competing in the Olympic Games was raised to sixteen after the 1996 Olympic Games, the institution in effect only forced gymnasts to be unusually small for their age in order to compete the necessary skills.

Given this background, the media has constructed the image of women’s gymnastics as “cute”. Media coverage of the gold medal winning United States women’s gymnastics team at the 1996 Atlanta Games framed the team as “little girls” and focused on their wounded and vulnerable bodies (Borcila, 2000). By portraying the athletes as “little girls”, despite their ages, the media offset the masculinity of the prepubescent image of the gymnasts’ bodies and incorporated the androgynous, dwarfed, and contorted bodies into femininity (Chisholm, 2002). In Acrobats, Contortionists, and Cute Children: The Promise and Perversity of U.S. Women’s Gymnastics, Ann Chisholm explains the motivation for the media to portray the athletes in this manner – “…cuteness is a mass-mediated code of intimacy that functions as a precondition for representations of love – the nation’s love for them and their love for the nation” (2002, p. 433).

The nation’s adoration for female gymnasts has evolved into a public fascination with the sport. The female athlete on the national media stage is most popular in “feminine sports”, or those that emphasize grace and beauty over athleticism, such as gymnastics or figure skating (Borcila, 2000). The 1996 women’s gymnastics team, the most successful in the history of U.S. women’s gymnastics, was framed as the female embodiment of the nation and illustrated as the “Face of America” by the media (Chisholm, 1999). The media can construct the body of the female gymnast in one of two ways – either as a site of national pride, or as a site of national anxiety. The historical discourse for this representation is the incarnation of women’s gymnastics, a relatively new development in the history of the sport, as a manifestation of nationalism with historical traces of militarism (Chisholm, 1999). The bodies of contemporary women’s gymnastics function as national bodies used to mediate cultural anxieties and conflicting desires about the national identity (Chisholm, 1999). The nationalizing function of narratives, in the form of stories about personal drama, creates the body as a site of national investment in the success of the gymnast, particularly in an international arena. A New York Times article from the 1996 Atlanta Games frames the gymnastics competition as a nationalistic war in which the United States defeated Russia for the first time (Clarey, 1996). Alternatively, the body of the female gymnast can also serve as a site of national anxiety. The “little girl” appears as an icon of feminized infantile vulnerability that needs to be protected by the nation. Both of the constructions of the body in women’s gymnastics place an enormous amount of pressure on athletes that are often children or not much older.

The pressures on child athletes by adults to win are the most important internal factor in the socialization of pain and injury as normative. The amount of stress a child feels is proportional to the degree that they have assimilated perceived societal expectations and the pressures increase when adults have something invested in the child, such as time and money (Nash, 1987). The “win at any cost” adage, as well as the incentive of winning money and endorsements places additional stress on the athlete because it helps the child negotiate the financial investment parents or coaches have made in them (Nash, 1987). 1986 U.S. Gymnastics National Champion Jennifer Sey wrote an autobiography, Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics’ Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders and Elusive Olympic Dreams, in which she reveals how her quest to reach the Olympics was cut short by eating disorders, coaching abuses, and injuries. She reveals the multiplicity of pressures faced by adolescent elite gymnasts, including stage parents, abusive coaches, manipulative businessman, eating disorders, and the seduction of success (Sey, 2008). Elite gymnasts tend to be extremely obedient and disciplined and strive for adult approval (Tofler et. al., 1996), and these characteristics make them particularly susceptible to abusive pressures.

A popular press perspective, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters, published in 1995 and written by Joan Ryan, exposes narratives of eating disorders, stunted growth, dehabilitating injury, and damaged psyches as a result of intensive training (Ryan, 1995). Though accounts of psychological damage are limited to personal narratives, the physical effects of intensive, often abusive, training are documented and have been studied in the field of sports medicine for about a decade. In a study by Krasnow, Mainwaring, and Kerr (1999), titled Injury, Stress and Perfectionism in Young Dancers and Gymnasts, a higher incidence of hip injuries was found in gymnasts than the typical adult population. This study found a link between injury, psychological stress, and perfectionism. A study by Sands, Schultz and Newman followed thirty-seven college gymnasts from a successful NCAA Division I team for five competitive seasons and recorded incidence of injury. They found a total of 5,603 training exposures (either an injury or an injury reoccurrence), with an average of 151.4 exposures per athlete. According to their analysis, the gymnasts trained with an injury 71% of the time. The most prevalent type of injury was of the repetitive stress syndrome type (Sands et. al., 1993).

An analysis by Tofler, Stryer, Micheli and Herman titled Physical and Emotional Problems of Elite Female Gymnasts concluded that the stress on the developing musculoskeletal system can result in permanent injury or deformity. They also cited concern for the “female-athlete triad” – the preponderance for female athletes to develop symptoms of disordered eating, menstrual dysfunction, and osteoporosis. The pressure for female gymnasts to maintain a prototypic mesomorphic body type (thin, muscular, and prepubescent) places additional risk for health problems.

However, despite the evidence that training for gymnastics at an elite level places an extreme amount of physical and psychological stress on female athletes, the media invisibilizes pain and injury under the cover of nationalism. In particular, the vulnerability of individual athletes is replaced with the invincibility of the team. The vulnerability of athletes, with their stories of injury and failure, is contrasted with the image of the generic Team USA, in which athletes are no longer framed as wounded “little girls”, but as aggressive and invincible (Borcila, 2000). Individual bodies are reconstituted as a collective subject. Discussing media coverage of the team competition at the 1996 Olympics in Nationalizing the Olympics Around and Away from “Vulnerable” Bodies of Women: The NBC Coverage of the 1996 Olympics and Some Moments After, Borcila writes,

“Team USA, we are told, is a team that “has no weaknesses”, although we see the bandages on the bodies of American players, and we watch stories of previous failures and injuries. Their vulnerability is surpassed by something else. When they are Team USA, they are no longer the wounded little girls. They are “aggressive”, they are “superstars”, they are “invincible”, and they are a “perfect body”, the commentators tell us” (2000, p. 140)

Displacing individual vulnerability by reconsidering the team as one body through the framework of the body as a site of national pride.

The essential external factor in the socialization of pain and injury as normative in women’s gymnastics is the media representation of it as such. Pain and injury are displayed as a sign of courage and strength (Clarey, 1996). For example, in a New York Times article titled “For the Magnificent Seven, it hurts so good”, published on day five of the 1996 Atlanta Games, gymnast Kerri Strug is framed as a national hero after vaulting on a broken ankle. Borcila writes,

“The personal trauma stories about American athletes concern the various failures of the body and how these are controlled and/or overcome by athletes. There are stories about limitations or peculiar vulnerabilities about bodies… There are stories about injuries overcome that are still visible on bodies, such as the bandage wrappings on Dominique Moceanu’s foot and on Shannon Miller’s foot. These stories are written around and about wounds, about traces of past events on bodies: We are asked, through verbal commentary and camera close-ups, to notice a bandage, an awkwardly held arm, or medication” (2000, p. 130).

The way that stories of pain and injury of the body are mediated either by putting them in the past or considering them as a normal part of the tribulations to reach the Olympics invisibilize the true nature of pain and injury.

Current research and popular press perspectives from former gymnasts and other insiders has revealed the pressures and abuses that internally socialize pain and injury in gymnasts training at the elite level. Scholarly works by Borcila and Chisholm have begun to establish a link between media representations of women’s gymnastics and problematic representations of the athlete’s body. The two main theories explored in media are the body as a site of national pride or anxiety, and the vulnerability of the individual reconstituted as the invincibility of the team. I would suggest an extensive media content analysis as the next step to understand how the media places reinforcing pressures on elite female gymnasts. The content analysis should include media coverage of women’s gymnastics competition from newspapers, magazines, and television coverage. In particular, the content analysis should observe how pain and injury are represented, either as a sign of strength and courage, as a signifier of the body’s past, or as vulnerability. The study should include an Olympic year as part of the coverage, as this is the most imminent time for media representations of gymnastics. My hypothesis is that pain and injury will be framed in media coverage as something to overcome as a signifier of strength and courage, or as a part of the body’s history with no bearing on the present. I predict that physical pain and injury will be featured more often than psychological pain. Additionally, I predict that the frameworks of the body as a site of national pride or anxiety and the invincibility of the team as a whole will be overarching representations in the media and will reinforce internal pressures on elite gymnasts.

In this proposal, I have addressed the current literature available on the socialization of pain and injury in elite women’s gymnastics. Sources include analysis of internal pressures on the gymnast, such as the pressure on the athlete from adults and the abuses resulting from intensive training. Sports medicine studies are also revealed, indicating strong evidence that there is an abnormally high incidence of injury in female gymnasts training at an elite level. The studies also indicate that the nature of the injuries is from repetitive stress, and that athletes often continue to train with injuries present. Scholarly literature reveals two theories for how women’s gymnastics is represented in the media – using the body as a site of national pride or anxiety and reframing the vulnerabilities of the individual as the invincibility of the team. With the recommendation of a media content analysis to analyze how pain and injury are represented, I predict that pain and injury will be normalized through reconstruction as emblems of strength and courage. Such research is important because the effect of the media can socialize ideas in the public. When pain is represented as positive, gymnasts are put at additional risk of debilitating injury. Though the current research is headed in the right direction to bring attention to the ideological risk imbued in women’s gymnastics, additional attention to the effect of the media is needed.

Works Cited

Borcila, A. (2000, May). Nationalizing the Olympics around and away from “vulnerable” bodies of women: The NBC coverage of the 1996 Olympics and some moments after. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 24(2), 118-147. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Chisholm, A. (2002, Winter). Acrobats, contortionists, and cute children: The promise and perversity of U.S. women’s gymnastics. Signs, 27(2), 415-450. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Chisholm, A. (1999, May). Defending the nation: National bodies, U.S. borders, and the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 23(2), 126-139. Retrieved from Google Scholar database.

Clarey, C. (1996, July 24). Atlanta: Day 5 — Gymnastics; For the Magnificent Seven, it hurts so good. The New York Times, p. B7. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Krasnow, D., M.S., Mainwaring, L., Ph.D., C.Psych., & Kerr, G., Ph.D. (1999). Injury, stress and perfectionism in young dancers and gymnasts. Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, 3(2), 51-58. Retrieved from Google Scholar database.

Nash, H. L. (1987, August). Elite child-athletes: How much does victory cost? Physician and Sportsmedicine, 15(8), 128-133.

Ryan, J. (1995). Little girls in pretty boxes: The making and breaking of elite gymnasts and figure skaters. New York: Doubleday.

Sands, W. A., Ph.D., Schultz, B. B., Ph.D., & Newman, A. P., M.D. (1993). Womens’ gymnastics injuries: A 5-year study. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 21(2), 271-277. Retrieved from Google Scholar database.

Sey, J. (2008). Chalked up: Inside elite gymnastics’ merciless coaching, overzealous parents, eating disorders, and elusive Olympic dreams. New York: William Morrow.

Toffler, I. R., M.B., B.S., Stryer, B. K., M.D., Micheli, L. J., M.D., & Herman, L. R., M.S. (1996, July 25). Physical and emotional problems of elite female gymnasts. The New England Journal of Medicine, 335(4), 281-283. Retrieved from Google Scholar database.

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The Socialization of Pain and Injury in Elite Women’s Gymnastics

Pink&Green (Taken with Instagram)

woodlandcreature: When someone asks me about my hobbies.

Reading with Alice (Taken with instagram)

View from the roof #nofilter (Taken with instagram)

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Better late than never… Celebrating with the best of...

Celebrating our birthdays! (Taken with Instagram at The...

Flowers at the NYPL (Taken with instagram)

Alice the country beagle (Taken with Instagram at Barboursville,...

April flowers (Taken with instagram)

Love my expert nametag at @mboothpr! (Taken with Instagram at M...

Just hangin out with Alice (Taken with instagram)

Boston Public Library with Callie (Taken with instagram)

Books (Taken with instagram)

Boston Ballet (Taken with instagram)

My kinda night (Taken with instagram)

Sleepy doggy. (Taken with instagram)

doonlibrary: Love it! Every home should have one! Available...

Hand knitted socks from Mom. (Taken with instagram)