Longtime elite gymnastics coach Al Fong has been suspended for physical and emotional misconduct by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the organization created by Congress to investigate reports of sexual abuse and misconduct across dozens of Olympic sports. The suspension will last for five years, per the USA Gymnastics database of suspended and restricted people.
Fong's wife, Armine Barutyan, who also coaches gymnastics, has been suspended by SafeSport for physical and emotional misconduct. Her suspension, per USAG, is for one year.
SafeSport did not release any details about the investigation. The only other detail from its website was that the suspensions involved education, a no-contact directive, and probation. USAG's website made clear that Fong and his wife were "suspended from all contact." But how the no-contact order would work—given that Missouri records say Fong owns his gymnastics gym—wasn't clear from anything publicly available. Defector Media reached out to Fong, USAG, and SafeSport for comment. SafeSport replied, providing the following statement:
We are grateful to those who come forward with their stories, which allow us to hold individuals accountable and shift sport culture.
It is incumbent on national governing bodies and their local affiliate organizations to enforce U.S. Center for SafeSport sanctions. The Center audits all NGBs annually to ensure that the sanctions are consistently enforced. Sanctions that result in removal from sport are listed on the Center's publicly available disciplinary database, a first-of-its-kind tool for parents, employers, and youth-serving organizations.
As for how enforcement would work, USAG asid the following: "In the event that the owner of a member club is suspended, the club must submit a transfer of ownership to a USA Gymnastics member in good standing."
As for what triggered the investigation, what little is known mostly comes from a 2023 report by Scott M. Reid in The Orange County Register. That report said the investigation went back to at least June of 2020 and was in response to "approximately 40 allegations of abuse" going as far back as the early 2000s. Even before this SafeSport investigation, Fong already had been forced out of working with elites after two gymnasts he coached died: Julissa Gomez in 1991 due to complications from injuries she suffered during a failed vault, and Christy Henrich in 1994 from organ failure connected to her struggles with anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
But Fong made a comeback after coaching two gymnasts who made it onto the 2004 Olympic team that won silver in Athens.
While the investigation stretched on for more than five years, Fong and Barutyan continued coaching. Fong has even maintained a personal website, where he advertised courses on how to be a better gymnastics coach. The offerings include the Change Your Culture Mentorship, described as: "We help coaches and gym owners visiting from around the world to learn how to create an environment that produces a healthy culture and gymnastics success focused on a system we have developed and have followed for many years."
