Parents How much of a Monoply does USAG actually have

[therandomgymnast1183]

This is kind of a weird question; however, for a sociology project, my teacher asked us to do research on an Elitist company and I decided to do one on USAG JO and more specifically how the organization is technically a monopoly over college scholarships and the olympics technically speaking.

I’ve been out of the gymnastic JO world for a year now, but competitive gymnastics was my childhood for a good portion of my life (Started at 7 and switched to excel at 14 and fully quit a few months ago)

I’m wondering from people who are actively involved (I’m doing a documentary based video) if you notice that a monopoly may be happening from your views

 

[raenndrops]

There is USAG (DP, Xcel, T&T and the rest), USAIGC, AAU, and NGA. There are also other smaller regional ones out there.
You can't really say much about them controlling who goes to the Olympics because there is only one NGB (National Governing Body) for each country.
USAIGC is a program whose focus is college-bound. Lower hours so you have more time for acadmics and the levels are designed with NCAA readiness in mind. Although I can't think of any off the top of my head, there are IGC girls who go on to compete in NCAA.

 

[comingback]

Less of a monopoly perspective, but as someone who grew up in the USAG JO world at a highly competitive gym in the early/mid 2010s, there was definitely a lot of elitism in terms of attitudes toward the JO system. There was a very small Xcel program at my gym and it was very much looked down upon by the JO coaches (and so by extension, the JO kids). I was threatened with being put in Xcel for mental blocks/injury and it very much felt like a threat in the context of the environment, although I now believe that switching to Xcel rather than quitting at the time would have been very beneficial for me over the next few years. There was also an mindset that being an Olympian/Elite was the only thing worth working towards, and while I was there even NCAA gymnastics was looked down upon quite heavily. At my former gym that attitude has now changed and nearly all of their graduating gymnasts go to D1 NCAA schools and the gym quite proudly advertises it. But that was not the situation 10 or even 5 years ago. I now compete on a college club team under the NAIGC, which uses a mix of Xcel and JO for their level system, and I have current teammates (raised in similar 2010s gyms) who refuse to compete in the Xcel-based levels because they do not want to be seen as an Xcel gymnast. Not sure if this actually relates to what you are researching but there's definitely a lot of elitism to be uncovered.

 

[Dahlialover]

In the US, every Olympic sport has a National Governing body that is responsible for developing and selecting the Olympic team. The USAG is The NGB for us gymnastics and they have a total monopoly on Olympic and international elite gymnastics. However, it is not accurate to say that the USAG controls NCAA scholarships. There are many international NCAA athletes who have never participated in is USAG Development Program.