322: Mary Lee Tracy Truth & Reconciliation
GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast
GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast
4.6 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 September 2018
⏱️ 130 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
THIS WEEK'S INTERVIEW
Mary Lee Tracy (MLT) has coached two Olympic gold medalists (four Olympians total) and has had over 25 national team members. Mary Lee was recently hired as USA Gymnastics Developmental Coordinator, only to be asked to resign after survivor backlash and "contacting a survivor." She was joined by Valorie Kondos-Field (Miss Val), UCLA head coach and advocate for culture change at USAG. This interview was conducted on September 9th 2018. We discuss:
- Criticism of MLT's coaching methods, including: nutrition, weigh-ins, injuries and tone-deaf social media posts.
- What both coaches have done wrong in the past and understanding victim shaming.
- Her thoughts on Marta Karolyi and the culture at the Ranch.
- Her defense of Nassar interview.
- If she ever stood up to Martha Karolyi or asked for changes at the Ranch.
- Her social media posts and comments, including Kelli Hill's response to Aly Raisman on our Facebook page.
- What she has learned from talking to survivor, Amanda Jetter.
- Prevention of grooming behavior and why banned coach, Steve Elliot, was fired from her gym.
- And some fun stuff about artistry, like Martha vetoing Lexi Priessman's floor routines over and over.
FURTHER READING
- GYMNASTICS; Being Good Isn't Always Enough for U.S. Team
- OUT OF BALANCE: A Look Inside USA Gymnastics' culture of abuse
- USA Gymnastics changes course amid heavy criticism, asks coach who defended Nassar to resign
- Tracy Takes Over as Elite Development Coorindator
- Miss Val Time's Up USAG
- Miss Val Together We Rise
- The End of Kerry Perry
- The Balance Beam Situation on MLT's hiring.
- Kelli Hill vs. Aly Raisman the Ranch soap metaphor.
BOOK CLUB CONTEST*:
What: 5 copies of Miss Val's book: Life is Short, Don't Wait to Dance Grand Prize: Book... plus a 15 minute personal phone call with Miss Val. How to Enter: Using the #DontWaitToDance on Twitter or Instagram, post a 5 second video doing your favorite UCLA floor choreography. Bonus entries: Link to the book. Enter as many times as you want. When: Now to October 5th *Conflict of Interest Disclaimer: Jessica's husband co-authored this book.
SUPPORT THE SHOW
RELATED EPISODES
- 282: GymCastic Book Club – Fierce, by Aly Raisman
- 281.5: Aly Raisman Comes Forward As Nassar Victim
- 318: 2018 US Wonder Woman Nationals
- 277.5: McKayla Maroney Alleges Abuse from Nassar
- 257: The Daniels Report
- 241: The Pittsburgh Incident
- 227: Jane Doe 2 Sues Karolyis
- 221: Jane Doe vs. USAG Doctor
- 187: McKayla Maroney
- 163: ENOUGH
- 56: Preventing Abuse in Gymnastics
- 15: Joan Ryan Author of Little Girls in Pretty Boxes
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Tumble Trek has been proudly serving the gymnastics, cheer, dance, and martial arts industry for over 25 years, providing the highest quality equipment on the market. |
| 0:10.0 | During the entire month of September, we'll have a 15% discount on all tumble track beams. |
| 0:15.0 | For more information visit our website at www |
| 0:19.0 | dot tumbaltract.com or give us a call at 800 331462. |
| 0:25.6 | Tumble Track, Train Smart. |
| 0:27.7 | This episode is brought to you by Simple Contacts. |
| 0:30.3 | Get $20 off your contacts at simple contacts.com |
| 0:33.8 | forward slash gymnastic 20 or enter code |
| 0:36.6 | gymnastic 20 at check out. |
| 0:38.8 | Today Mary Lee Tracy gives truth and Reconciliation a try, our interview with her. |
| 0:45.9 | You can win a 15 minute phone call with Miss Val and a copy of her book, plus our by Carrie Perry |
| 0:51.4 | contest winners. |
| 0:52.5 | This is episode of 322 for September 18th, 2018. |
| 0:57.5 | And welcome to the number one gymnastics |
| 0:59.5 | podcast in the galaxy. |
| 1:01.0 | I'm Jessica, and today is our interview with Mary Lee Tracy, |
| 1:04.4 | accompanied by Miss Val. First I want to wish good luck to our scientist |
| 1:09.8 | listener Catherine who is curing cancer and she is defending her |
| 1:13.4 | dissertation this week so good luck Catherine thanks for everything you're doing |
| 1:17.1 | for the world so because this is a strong opinion show as you know it's important to state here that like I said |
| 1:25.2 | last week our interviews are not endorsements period so this is an experiment we're |
| 1:32.0 | gonna see how it goes. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

