Bob CollinsFormer WCCO anchor Jamie Yuccas’ interview this morning with UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi captures perfectly the contradictory nature of her sport to outsiders.
Ohashi is the gymnast whose floor routine video went viral in January. She scored another “10” this weekend, Yuccas says. UCLA is selling out its gymnastic competition venue.
“I think competing is one of my favorite things ever. And so what you see is literally how I feel every time I step on the floor,” Ohashi said.
Joy. Nice. Gymnastics seems like the best sport ever.
The joy of gymnastics — again, to an outsider — often seems to come with a sport’s dark underbelly.
In Ohashi’s case, it was body shaming.
“We take it in and believe a lot of the things we hear. So to hear that you’re not good enough, to hear you’re too fat, to hear just a lot of hurtful and verbal abuse, you start to think that that’s normal and that’s what you deserve,” Ohashi said.
From whom? Coaches? Fans? Parents? Other gymnasts? Yuccas’ piece did not say.
“Me and my friends would create these like jokes almost, or like games and stuff. And like we would try to eat the least amount of food,” Ohashi said. She acknowledged that wasn’t normal, but it was accepted, Yuccas said.
Gymnastics seems like the worse sport ever.
