Eloise Jotischky

“By the end, it wasn’t joyous. I think I hated it. You just blame yourself and you think that you’re the problem, until Athlete A comes out. That was about sexual abuse, but the underlying themes of Athlete A are about the physical and emotional abuse, the non-contact physical abuse, which made it get to that point. That’s what all resonated.”

Eloise Jotischky · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Jotischky, who stopped training at 14, describes self-blame and how the Athlete A documentary helped her understand the physical and emotional abuse she experienced.

“to articulate what you’ve been through and find the terms to understand and talk about your experience”

Eloise Jotischky · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Jotischky describes how the Athlete A documentary helped her articulate and understand her own experiences of abuse.

“The only way I can really describe it is that it’s sort of like a cult in a lot of ways. It’s a very closed system, you’re very isolated, in a lot of cases you’re pulled out of school, you’re removed from your friends, you’re travelling to competitions all the time and you’re deprived of a normal social life. I’d say it’s very similar to a coercively controlling relationship in a domestic setting, there’s a lot of parallels there, but you’re a child, so there’s the duty of care issue as well.”

Eloise Jotischky · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Jotischky compares the gymnastics environment to a cult and a coercively controlling domestic relationship, noting the duty of care owed to children.

“It’s very hard to explain it to people who are not within that culture, that sport,”

Eloise Jotischky · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-24

Jotischky discusses the difficulty of explaining gymnastics abuse culture to outsiders.