Bond director Remco Boer about Dutch gymnastics: ‘We have passed through the deepest valley’

The Dutch gymnast has settled in an all-inclusive hotel on the south coast of the Turkish city of Antalya, a short drive from the hall where the European championships take place this week.

But the Netherlands is not the only country that chose this hotel. Less than five minutes after Remco Boer, director of gymnastics federation KNGU, arrives in the lobby for this interview, Gerrit Beltman sits down at the table next to him. Beltman is the gymnastics coach who three years ago in an interview with the Noordhollands Dagblad admitted that he systematically abused and humiliated gymnasts in the past. That interview gave rise to the ‘turn crisis’. Nowadays Beltman is a temporary coach of the Austrian gymnastics, who also stay in this hotel.

At the time, Boer (53) was just talking about the beautiful third place that the Dutch women’s team achieved and thus also secured a ticket for the World Cup later this year. In addition, there are several places in the finals, such as that of Sanne Wevers, who made her international comeback on beam. But then Beltman plops down in a lobby chair. Farmer is silent for a moment and then says: “Shall we sit in a different spot?”

It is symbolic: the gymnastics federation still stands with one leg in the painful past. Despite the repeated call of the current top gymnasts to finally talk about the sport again. As they have often said, they do not recognize themselves in the grim picture that former top gymnasts paint.

The question arises where gymnastics stands now. Boer, in a short summary: “Not everything is finished yet. The grieving process is underway. We’re through the deepest valley, but not every gymnast is the same way in processing. And the culture change is not finished yet.” Boer says that some former gymnasts have reported to the union to think about changes in the sport.

Beltman is not the only Dutch coach who became involved in the gymnastics crisis and then entered foreign service. Gerben Wiersma is national coach of the German women. And Patrick Kiens was in the hall on Wednesday as national coach of the Romanian gymnasts.

Also in the Dutch team are two names that played a role in that gymnastics crisis: Nico Zijp and Vincent Wevers. They were summoned before the ISR Sports Disciplinary Board and acquitted on appeal. This happened very recently at Wevers, in March, after an investigation that left all those involved dissatisfied. Wevers is in Turkey as coach of both his daughter Sanne and Naomi Visser, who will compete in the all-around final this Friday.

The fact that Wevers is there is due to “a rapprochement from both sides,” says Boer. It was also very important that the gymnasts found his presence “fine”. We spoke extensively with them beforehand. “They genuinely don’t have much trouble with Vincent and they see the added value he brings.” Boer thinks that this tournament can be “a marking point” for Dutch gymnastics: a new phase.

It is the KNGU that appealed against Wevers. Isn’t it uncomfortable to stand here together?

“Mutual trust still needs to grow,” says Boer. “But there is a foundation to build on. We didn’t have the opportunity to sit together beforehand, so we ran into each other here. That is in a situation where you are both communicative and professional and mature. And on Wednesday we said: we have to talk.”

Boer has been director of the KNGU since December, before which he was director of the Netherlands Institute for Sport and Exercise. He knew what was going on in the world of gymnastics, but when he started he noticed that the sport of gymnastics ‘has turned inward quite a bit’. The willingness of coaches, gymnastics associations, the union, to work together is “not that great,” he says. In addition, gymnastics is literally hardly visible. “It happens in a room, often an enclosed space. My daughter did gymnastics until she was ten, she is fourteen now. Back then it was not the intention that you as a parent started watching. I think that’s crazy. But that is now changing.”

Throw open the doors of the gymnastics hall, that was also a recommendation from the independent committee that presented the compensation scheme for former gymnasts at the beginning of April. The scheme turned out to be much more ‘popular’ than expected. “Our first calculation was that it would be a maximum of 100 gymnasts,” says Boer. That was also in consultation with Marjan Olfers who wrote the report Uneven Legs made, about abuses in gymnastics.

In the end, 166 former gymnasts were eligible for compensation of 5,000 euros per person. Boer also wonders what makes this difference. “It had to be generously awarded, I think that is a very good approach.” Unlike with the ISR, it did not have to be conclusively established that what a gymnast told happened exactly as it did. “But does this number mean that the crisis is bigger than expected? I do not know.”

With more participants, the total amount is also higher than expected, more than 800,000 euros. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport pays the costs of the research. NOC-NSF takes on half of the hundred athletes that were initially planned, the KNGU pays the rest. “We had to dig into our reserves for that. But there are reservations for that.” The scheme has no influence on the budget of the KNGU, says Boer.

The report on the compensation scheme referred to coaches who pushed pupils aside as soon as they stopped performing. What can the KNGU do about this?

“That starts with you organizing the training of coaches differently. It also fits in with the vision we have developed: the most important thing is that the athlete is central. The coach guides you so that you can get the best out of yourself. It is not there to determine or to give orders.

“I hear that it sometimes takes some getting used to for top gymnasts. They are often asked for their opinion. That can also be uncomfortable if you are not used to it.”

And what does this approach mean for, say, an 8-year-old?

“Yes, of course you have to see what responsibility a child can handle. But that as a trainer, instead of looking at what went wrong, as a coach you ask: what did you think of it? Or that instead of saying what you are going to do, you ask: what do you want to learn? The goal is to make the athlete as autonomous as possible.

“We are also working on the scoring of competitions, at least with younger gymnasts. That there is no deduction for what you do not do well, as is usual in gymnastics, but that you get points for what you do well. There are even ideas to judge only on one’s own progress without mutual comparison.”

Now we are talking about recreational sport, but top sport doesn’t work that way, of course.

“No, the tricky thing is: at the European and World Gymnastics Association they are more on traditional thinking. So you have to introduce ‘performance-oriented’ sports at a certain point.”

So you are still puzzling with the switch from width to subtop? Because this still sounds vague.

“The talent phase is now the least well developed. We are working on that.”

If you look at judging differently, for example, then I also sense the criticism that the top sports mentality is suffering as a result.

“Well, the starting point is that training harder and more does not always lead to better performance. It’s about the goal: you want to become the best, what is the right route for you? That is not always training harder, but differentiating, or recognizing the importance of rest. And suffering will always be part of it, many top athletes also like that. But the absolute hierarchy of coaching, structurally crossing boundaries, the ‘if it doesn’t work out with you, I’ll drop you and find someone else’, that is changing.

“It is a bit of the same counter-movement as with metoo. That argument of: ‘As a man you can’t say anything anymore.’ That’s just not true.”

It is said that the gymnastics crisis has left a hole in the sub-top of gymnastics. Is that right?

“I think so. I spoke to Vincent about this on Wednesday, who is also concerned about this. We have had a significant drop in membership. We are recovering from that. The groups below the top are narrower than in the past. Due to the size of the growth, this is less important for women than for men. It is mainly due to the negative image. A coach told me that, from the past, people have the impression that young children have to train thirty hours a week.”

People probably also ask you on a birthday: my daughter wants to go to gymnastics. Then what do you say?

“I would say definitely do it. Motor development, getting to know your body, you will benefit from that throughout your life. I see it in my own daughter. She recently had a dance performance at school; she stands there with a certain flair.”

Has gymnastics changed enough to send your child safely?

“Yes. But as a parent I would show involvement by actively following your child’s gymnastics.”