Coach given two-year warning to coach at Horizon Cup in Greece this weekend

Clare Hague, head coach at Dronfield Gymnastics Academy who received a formal warning from British Gymnastics following an investigation, has travelled with English Gymnastics to coach at the Horizon Cup in Greece this weekend.

Documents seen by BBC Sport list concerns considered in the investigation as fear-based coaching and emotional harm, controlling and restrictive practices, punitive attendance policies and psychological impact on children, and an outcome letter states British Gymnastics upheld a number of the concerns and issued Hague and Dronfield Gymnastics Academy with a formal warning lasting two years alongside monitoring and development measures.

The governing body did not tell complainants which specific concerns had been upheld, and complainants from two separate investigations told the BBC the decision to allow Hague to coach internationally was "a smack in the teeth" and "adds salt in the wound"; one of those complainants spoke on the record anonymously because of concerns about repercussions for her daughter in the local gymnastics community.

A complainant alleged to the BBC that some gymnasts at Dronfield regularly felt afraid to ask to go to the toilet, resulting in some wetting themselves and others choosing not to drink during sessions, and the BBC noted that allowing gymnasts opportunities to drink water throughout training and to go to the toilet at the earliest available opportunity was one of a number of safeguarding rules introduced by British Gymnastics in 2023 to stop practices it said were "on the fringes of abuse".

One complainant in a separate 2022 investigation told the BBC their daughter endured years of emotional and physical abuse at Dronfield, and the outcome letter for that case said the coaches would be offered further training; that complainant added: "I didn't have faith in the system in 2022 because it was notorious that the system was not working… I did have hope that things had changed but it's disappointing to know that the outcome effectively is the same."

An independent report, the Whyte Review, described systemic physical and emotional abuse within gymnastics in Britain and found wellbeing and welfare had "not been at the centre of British Gymnastics' culture"; the review made 17 recommendations focused on safeguarding and welfare, complaints handling, standards and educations, and governance and oversight, prompting the governing body to double its spending on welfare and safe sport to about £1m a year.

British Gymnastics told BBC Sport it cannot comment on the specifics of individual cases but said every concern is treated "in a way appropriate to the nature of the case" and added: "We have a duty to all those involved to ensure that outcomes are based on a fair, balanced and thorough assessment of all information from any relevant people, with a full context and understanding of the situation and consideration of all perspectives." The statement continued: "We can be categoric that if we considered a member to be a risk they would be removed from our sport. With regards to Dronfield, it's important to highlight we have heard positive reports from members about their experience there. From any concerns raised, the club is proactively and positively working with us to see where improvements can be made so that positive experience is the case for everyone." English Gymnastics had announced Hague as a coach for the Horizon Cup while she was still under investigation; the Horizon Cup is an international artistic gymnastics competition for junior and pre-junior gymnasts aged 11-16, and English Gymnastics is an affiliated home country association under British Gymnastics that manages some regional and national programmes, including selection for Team England at the Commonwealth Games.

Campaigners said cases like this raise "alarming" questions about how concerns are identified, monitored and addressed and criticised the use of retraining where complaints have been upheld on more than one occasion; Claire Heafford, chief executive of campaign group Gymnasts for Change, told BBC Sport: "Where there are multiple complaints over multiple years, we cannot understand how it's possible that coaches are repeatedly being given retraining instead of adequate sanctions to get them out of the sport, because they're proving consistently they are inappropriate coaches to be working with children." British Gymnastics began publishing the names of banned and expelled coaches in 2023 as part of its 'Reform 25' programme, but Heafford said this is "meaningless" as it does not extend to those who have had sanctions against them: "If you're the parent of an athlete at the moment, you have no way of knowing whether the coach coaching your child has had previous complaints or sanctions against them," and "That is an awful situation for parents and athletes to be in and in this case, it proves that the current system is continuing to put children in harm's way."

Abuse complaints process to be replaced after victims' criticism.