Hey there. This is the second installment of a two-part story.

If you haven't heard Accountability in Gymnastics, part one, go back to our last episode and start there.

In part one, we heard a lot about the question. there.

In part one, we heard a lot about the questionable decisions made by the International Gymastics

Federation, the FIG, in the aftermath of the floor final controversy.

And how, at the time we're recording this,

the organization has barely acknowledged what happened,

expressing little accountability or support

for the gymnast being unfairly harassed online.

But long before the Paris floor final even started,

there's questionable choices that the FIG made.

Choices about how they run the competitions,

how they support athletes, and how they get oversight.

The FIG's first priority is supposed to be the well-being of the athletes.

But who exactly do their choices best serve? That's what

we're looking at today on Accountability in Gymnastics, part two. I'm Ari

Saferine and this is Blind Landing. One of the first things that people do is they blame the judges. They say the judges are corrupt, which is not usually the case believe it or not.

This is Kathy Sue Rupp. Kathy Sue is a high-level gymnastics judge and she noticed in the

aftermath of the floor final

controversy that a lot of people online have directed anger at the quote-unquote

judges using that as a catch-all term to refer to the officials responsible for what happens at a competition.

But in truth, most of the judges that you see on TV, writing down deductions and tying up scores,

...