De olympisch kampioene op de balk reageert in een interview op de laatste ontwikkelingen rondom het turnschandaal en de beschuldigingen aan het adres van haar vader.
TW Physical and psychological abuse
Sanne Wevers has responded to all the accusations that have come out recently. First of all, shame on this reporter for fishing for negative comments while she’s barely holding on. In case you’ve missed this, former Dutch gymnast Joy Goedkoop has accused Vincent Wevers of physical and psychological abuse. Sanne says she doesn’t recall physical abuse. She refused to specify more about Vincent, saying he will come with his own statement. This she has to repeat several times, because they reporter keeps on pushing these buttons.
Sanne obviously takes this very seriously, she mentions how it breaks her heart that in all accusations the KNGU gymnastics federation has been notified, but has not done anything with it. She encourages gymnasts to speak up, because the sport is too beautiful to be overshadowed by abuse. She considers there to be a big difference between Dutch gymnastics in the early 2000s and now, describing the former to be ‘Spartan’. They’ve been working hard for the past ten years to improve the training climate, and while there’s still room for improvement, it’s not like the early 2000s, which she has also experienced.
To be clear, since I’ve seen people wondering whether she’d defend Vincent Nastia-style, never does she say Joy is lying, just that she has not experienced physical abuse. She refuses to respond as merely ‘daughter of’(as the reporter seems to want), as opposed to one of the gymnasts.
Other statements I’ve seen on Instagram from former gymnasts also specify that they experienced psychological abuse, not physical abuse. She emphasises that all stories need to be heard and dialogues need to be had so that lessons can be learned and the training environment can be improved.
Edit: Wyomi Masela has also come out with her experience with Vincent Wevers. She denies any physical abuse, but says there were aspects of his coaching that were psychologically tough, like focus on her weight.
