Preserving Survivor Truth
The Gymnasts for Change International Oral History Archive, which sits at the Bishopsgate Institute, is a home for survivor testimony, preserving and amplifying the voices of athletes who have experienced profound harm in gymnastics. By preserving these voices, the archive helps the sport learn from the past and work to ensure such abuse is never repeated.
Oral History Archive: A Home for Survivor Testimony in Gymnastics
The Gymnasts for Change International Oral History Archive preserves and amplifies the voices of survivors of abuse in gymnastics from around the globe. It serves as a living record of survivor truth in the sport, preserving these narratives for the historical record, survivor recognition, scholarly research, and institutional accountability.
We affirm a deep commitment to ethical, trauma-informed stewardship. For over 50 years, athletes have been speaking out about the harm they have experienced through participation in the sport. Our archive exists to honour survivor voices, amplify their calls for accountability and change, and ensure their warnings are not lost, ignored, or silenced again.
If you would like to know more about the Archive, please reach out directly.
In Partnership with The Bishopsgate Institute
By placing the G4CI Oral History Archive with the Bishopsgate Institute, we are intentionally anchoring these testimonies alongside some of the UK’s most vital collections of grassroots protest, social justice, and lived experience. The Institute proudly holds the archives of landmark social movements - including the INQUEST Archive, the UK LGBTQIA+ Archives, and the Feminist and Women’s History Collections - as well as community-led oral histories like the Young Rebels (Southall Youth Movement) and the Occupy London Oral History Project.
“The G4CI Oral History Archive offers the opportunity to record and document global survivors’ unedited history of their difficult experiences in gymnastics. It's about identifying what abuse happened, where it happened, when it happened and who by. And in so doing, to ensure that this scale of abuse never happens again.”
— Hannah Lilley, Curator, G4CI