#there are 5 and 3 alternates every 4 years [asterisk tokyo] and how many hundreds try and fail to be one of those 8?

[viktoriakomova]

and think about 10+ years ago when “influencing” wasn’t even a thing. Nastia and Shawn are lucky that they were successful enough individually (ie notable enough as Olympic champions without the “team” designation tacked onto it and thus individually marketable for years afterward as 2 of the Team USA [overall, all sports] stars) and had that elite status as stars in a Team USA marquee sport already 1 year before the Olympics so they could be in all the huge commercial spots in the lead up to 2008. AND that they struck a lucky spot temporally where they made a big enough splash to be remembered well enough in the mid-2010s to have a big social media following.

ASAC (smartly!) saved her eligibility for NCAA, did a season at Brown (an ivy league which I guaran-fucking-tee you she wouldn’t have been admitted to if she werent an athlete), didn’t like it and came back to elite, made the olympics in 2008, didn’t win an individual medal in beijing, took a break and came back to elite after a years break, returned to the elite level and won an individual world title. then a year later got hurt, recovered and competed at olympic trials in 2012, and didn’t even make alternate. her status as an Olympian has gotten her the commentary gig with ESPN that she has now, regardless of merit (in the sense that someone as good as her or even better wouldn’t have been hired if they were on the US national team and werent an Olympian. even a world championship gold isn’t worth as much as having been to the Olympics). don’t @ me

it’s like your 3 career paths are a) commentator/sports media, if you’re charismatic and savvy enough; b) influencer, if you’re popular and hot pretty enough; or c) a coach (no matter what level).

And I don’t mean to shit on coaching as a profession. The point I’m trying to make is that the options are so limited as far as career paths go, especially when you have no college degree. Until 2 (!!!) years ago, gymnasts weren’t even allowed to compete in NCAA and capitalize off their popularity at the same time. I hope the NIL rules change this whole dynamic, even a little. But… where does that leave the ones who came before them?

Think about Vanessa Atler ffs. She did a big Reeses commercial and a few minor endorsements riding the post-1996 wave of gymnastics popularity in the US, and despite her tremendous talent and likeability ended up not making the Olympics in 2000 at all. It’s been 22 years, she’s a regular adult who is a mom and is working as a coach (last I checked), and has come a long way in terms of unpacking all that happened before she was a fully independent adult, but not 100% of it, I’m sure she’d say if you asked her.

And these are just the big name elites. Think about the ratio of the number girls whose names we all know, the stars of elite or even the cream of the L10 crop, to the number of gymnasts who fell short but experienced the same treatment, made the same sacrifices, and have the same literal and figurative scars. They’ve all suffered this way, to some extent, and for what?

Also (this is NOT me calling her or anyone dumb lemme be clear) the educational neglect that’s practically encouraged by elite gymnastics as a subculture is absolutely conducive to this. Especially the ones who don’t end up doing NCAA. You’re churning out dozens of undereducated young adults, with awful social skills vis-à-vis their normie peers, who are intense and one-track-minded and have no practical work force skills or reasonably “hirable” credentials, and you’ve encouraged them to make gymnastics their one and only medium of identity and self expression, and one day they aren’t gymnasts anymore and they have to get a big girl job and navigate the adult world and that’s like figuratively driving them off a cliff into the ocean below at 100mph. It’s a miracle that ANY of them managed to become relatively well adjusted adults honestly...