Current:Home > FinanceElite gymnast Kara Eaker announces retirement, alleges abuse while training at Utah-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Elite gymnast Kara Eaker announces retirement, alleges abuse while training at Utah
View Date:2024-12-23 18:41:55
Gymnast Kara Eaker announced Friday on Instagram her retirement from the University of Utah women’s gymnastics team and withdrawal as a student, citing verbal and emotional abuse from a coach and lack of support from the administration.
“For two years, while training with the Utah Gymnastics team, I was a victim of verbal and emotional abuse,” Eaker wrote in a post. “As a result, my physical, mental and emotional health has rapidly declined. I had been seeing a university athletics psychologist for a year and a half and I’m now seeing a new provider twice a week because of suicidal and self-harm ideation and being unable to care for myself properly. I have recently been diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression, anxiety induced insomnia, and I suffer from panic attacks, PTSD and night terrors. …
“I have now reached a turning point and I’m speaking out for all of the women who can’t because they are mentally debilitated and paralyzed by fear.”
Eaker, 20, is an elite American gymnast who was part of U.S. gold-medal teams at the 2018 and 2019 world championships. She was named an alternate at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and was a member of Utah’s teams that finished third at the NCAA championships in 2022 and 2023. Utah is one of the top programs in women’s college gymnastics.
USA TODAY Sports has reached out to the University of Utah for comment.
“I was a promised a ‘family’ within this program and a ‘sisterhood’ with my teammates, who would accept me, care for me, and support,” Eaker wrote. “But instead, as I entered as a freshman, I was heartbroken to find the opposite in that I was training in an unhealthy, unsafe and toxic environment."
She alleged “loud and angry outbursts” that involved cursing from a coach.
Eaker said the abuse “often happened in individual coach-athlete meetings. I would be isolated in an office with an overpowering coach, door closed, sitting quietly, hardly able to speak because of the condescending, sarcastic and manipulative tactics."
When Eaker went to university officials with her allegations, she wrote, "One administrator denied there was any abuse and said, 'You two are like oil and water, you just don't get along.' To say I was shocked would be an understatement and this is a prime example of gaslighting. So therein lies the problem − the surrounding people and system are complicit."
Eaker does not name any coach in her post. Tom Farden has been coaching at Utah since 2011, a co-head coach from 2016-2019 and sole head coach from 2020. Last month, an investigation into Farden by Husch Blackwell concluded Farden, “did not engage in any severe, pervasive or egregious acts of emotional or verbal abuse of student-athletes” and “did not engage in any acts of physical abuse, emotional abuse or harassment as defined by SafeSport Code.”
However, the investigation found Farden “made a derogatory comment to a student-athlete that if she was not at the University she would be a ‘nobody working at a gas station’ in her hometown” and “a few student-athletes alleged that Coach Farden made comments to student-athletes that, if corroborated, would have likely resulted in a finding that they violated the Athletics’ Well Being Policy’s prohibition on degrading language. The comments as alleged were isolated occurrences that could not be independently corroborated and were denied by Coach Farden.”
In her Instagram post, Eaker called the investigation “incomplete at best, and I disagree with their findings. I don’t believe it has credibility because the report omits crucial evidence and information and the few descriptions used are inaccurate.”
veryGood! (71)
Related
- 2 striking teacher unions in Massachusetts face growing fines for refusing to return to classroom
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Red Velvet, Please
- Deebo Samuel explains 'out of character' sideline altercation with 49ers long snapper, kicker
- Colts' Kenny Moore II ridicules team's effort in loss to Bills
- 'Underbanked' households more likely to own crypto, FDIC report says
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Red Velvet, Please
- Steelers shoot for the moon ball, but will offense hold up or wilt in brutal final stretch?
- Tony Todd, star of 'Candyman,' 'Final Destination,' dies at 69
- Jennifer Garner and Boyfriend John Miller Are All Smiles In Rare Public Outing
- Judith Jamison, a dancer both eloquent and elegant, led Ailey troupe to success over two decades
Ranking
- Mean Girls’ Lacey Chabert Details “Full Circle” Reunion With Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried
- Sister Wives’ Madison Brush Details Why She Went “No Contact” With Dad Kody Brown
- Atmospheric river to bring heavy snow, rain to Northwest this week
- A crowd of strangers brought 613 cakes and then set out to eat them
- Stocks soared on news of Trump's election. Bonds sank. Here's why.
- These Yellowstone Gift Guide Picks Will Make You Feel Like You’re on the Dutton Ranch
- Jared Goff stats: Lions QB throws career-high 5 INTs in SNF win over Texans
- Sister Wives' Janelle Brown Details to Meri Why She Can't Trust Ex Kody and His Sole Wife Robyn
Recommendation
-
Women suing over Idaho’s abortion ban describe dangerous pregnancies, becoming ‘medical refugees’
-
Everard Burke Introduce
-
Week 10 fantasy football rankings: PPR, half-PPR and standard leagues
-
Mega Millions winning numbers for November 8 drawing: Jackpot rises to $361 million
-
NFL Week 11 picks straight up and against spread: Will Bills hand Chiefs first loss of season?
-
Firefighters make progress, but Southern California wildfire rages on
-
Engines on 1.4 million Honda vehicles might fail, so US regulators open an investigation
-
Trump announces Tom Homan, former director of immigration enforcement, will serve as ‘border czar’