Gymnasts’ dreams shattered. A little girl’s sense of self - broken. Just a few of the outcomes from the actions of Maggie Haney, an ex-gymnastics coach from New Jersey, who was placed on the “Suspended & Restricted Persons” list for USA Gymnastics.
Maggie Haney began gymnastics at 3 years old and eventually continued to compete at the collegiate level for North Carolina State University from 1997-2000. She began coaching in 2007 and, in 2012, formed her own gymnastics team at Monmouth Gymnastics in Morganville, New Jersey. Haney always dubbed her team “Maggie’s Girls”, so she eventually named their club MG Elite. From the beginning, MG Elite was known for its flawless technique, demanding coaching style, and its production of champions. Early on in Haney’s career, she stumbled upon Lauren Hernandez and Jazmyn Foberg and sensed their stellar potential. Hernandez’s bubbly yet focused personality led to her making the prestigious USA Gymnastics National Team in 2013 and the Olympic Team in 2016. Jazmyn became the National Champion for both all-around (combination of Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, and Floor Exercise) and Uneven Bars in 2014.
While incredible accomplishments, Haney was not satisfied–she wanted more results, regardless of the physical or emotional toll placed upon the girls. There were some days when “Laurie Hernandez cried the moment she woke up, dreading another day of getting yelled at and humiliated in front of the other girls at practice because of her weight.” Haney seemed to neglect Hernandez’s feelings and claimed it was “probably her fault [and that] maybe everything would be okay the next day if she could just throw up the food she had eaten” (Liz Clarke, The New York Times). Haney constantly belittled and tormented her gymnasts, punishing them horrendously for something simple as a flexed foot. She was always prideful of her “tough coaching style”, but when does tough coaching become abusive coaching?
Due to Hernandez’s and Foberg’s success, Maggie Haney became well-known in the gymnastics community, and gymnasts started to travel from all around the country to train under her. Two notable gymnasts, Riley McCusker and Olivia Greaves, left their home gymnastics clubs to end up being subjected to Haney’s horrific abuse. They both grew up training at their respective gyms (McCusker from Connecticut and Greaves from New York) but felt that they needed a boost in their training to achieve their goals, so they switched to MG Elite. Since McCusker and Greaves were at similar levels, Haney would use harsh comparison methods to motivate them to complete their assignments. For a while, it was working–they both became USAG National Team Members (McCusker from 2016-2021, and Greaves from 2018-2022). McCusker went on to compete at the 2018 World Championships and was a part of the gold-medal team for Team USA Gymnastics. Similarly, Greaves competed at the Junior World Championships Trials and boasts numerous first-place finishes at the USA Gymnastics Championships on Uneven Bars.
What started as Haney’s out-of-the-ordinary demands quickly spiraled into her becoming a crazed perfectionist–it was first place or nothing in Haney’s eyes. Haney would scream at her gymnasts for the “tiniest of mistakes or lapses in focus” and called them “weak, lazy, or messed up in the head” (Juliet Macur, The New York Times). After a while, the gymnasts training under her started to believe what she was saying–that everything was completely their fault. Haney would make her gymnasts train on broken bones and would force them to take off boots and casts to train. The case of Emily Liszewski was a prime example of this–Haney forced Liszewski to perform a skill on the Uneven Bars (without proper spotting) that she was not comfortable with. This led to her falling and hitting her head on the concrete. “Liszewski was unconscious for three days, with multiple skull fractures, and had seizures because of the injury” (Juliet Macur, The New York Times). While Liszewski was seizing on the ground, Haney and an assistant coach laughed and failed to act. Liszewski was eventually okay, but this kind of treatment led many other young gymnasts to have long-term medical issues because of pure abuse and negligence. Many of them switched gymnastics clubs or quit the sport altogether because of severe mental or physical health issues. These issues included depression, extreme anxiety, disordered eating, and suicidal thoughts, which have scarred many for a lifetime.
Hernandez reported Maggie Haney to USA Gymnastics in 2016. Only in April of 2020, after nearly a dozen reports against Haney, was she finally suspended and banned from any contact with minors for 8 years. Both McCusker and Liszewski sued Haney for her misconduct as well. In December 2020, “an arbitrator hearing an appeal from Maggie Haney decided some of the testimony against her was improperly used”, and Haney successfully reduced her sentence from 8 to 5 years (Juliet Macur, The New York Times). With gymnasts awaiting her return to MG Elite, Haney will be able to continue her abusive coaching methods in April 2025.
Although Haney did inhumane things to her gymnasts, there are still people who will go to great lengths to get their children to train under her. These parents desire results, and Haney can help their kids become champions, but at what cost? Is 5 years enough for the trauma left upon McCusker, Hernandez, Liszewski, and so many others to heal from what Haney did to them?
Edited by Abhi Sharma