Episode 77: “Understanding Gymnastics on its Own Terms” with Dvora Meyers, Part I

In part one of a two-part episode, Johanna is joined by Dvora Meyers to talk about the antiquated and problematic roots of gymnastics, systemic racism in the sport, athlete activism, and the ways in which the gaze of observers and fans hurts athletes within the sport and reproduces various forms of harm and exploitation.

Dvora Meyers is a writer and freelance journalist (formerly of Deadspin), and the author of the book The End of the Perfect 10: The Making and Breaking of Gymnastics’ Top Score —from Nadia to Now. Dvora writes prolifically about gymnastics and other sports from political, cultural, and social angles and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Vice, Defector, FiveThirtyEight and many more. She also has a substack titled Unorthodox Gymnastics, which we strongly encourage people to subscribe to get a roundup of her published pieces, plus additional exclusive analyses made available to subscribers.

Pieces mentioned in this episode:

“Why it’s Not Surprising that Simone Biles Cheered for Angelina Melnikova” FiveThirtyEight

 “Time for the End of the Teen Gymnast” FiveThirtyEight

“Women’s Gymnastics is blasting into the future, but its scoring code is stuck in the past.” Defector

You can follow Dvora on Twitter!

 

For a transcription of this episode, please click here. (Updated semi-regularly Credit @punkademic)

Research Assistance for The End of Sport provided by Abigail Bomba.

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