“Kids love to run, jump, climb, slide and generally just go nuts without getting hurt or getting in trouble. [GAGE] is the place,” Alvin “Al” Fong said in a 1995 interview with the Kansas City Business Journal. 

At the time of the article’s release, Fong and his wife Armine Barutyan were celebrating the grand opening of the newest branch of their gym, Great American Gymnastics Express – more commonly known as GAGE.

The warehouse turned gymnastics training center was the third location of a gym that had amassed over 1,000 gymnasts since it opened in 1979. It was an expansion, certainly, but it also served as a new beginning for Fong and Barutyan, who – even by 1995 – had already found themselves in a hotbed of controversy.

READ MORE: USA Gymnastics revokes GAGE membership citing ongoing SafeSport non-compliance

Fong and Barutyan both started their careers as successful gymnasts. Fong, a Seattle native, worked his way up from his local YMCA to earn a scholarship to compete at LSU. Barutyan had a successful elite career in the USSR, but internal politics left the Olympic hopeful largely void of major international assignments. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Games didn’t help either.

Barutyan left the Soviet Union in 1989, marrying Fong and joining the GAGE staff shortly after. 

Before Barutyan even entered the picture, however, Fong had already faced public scrutiny following multiple serious injuries involving gymnasts under his supervision.

Fong’s recent five-year SafeSport suspension is the first formal condemnation of his behavior in nearly 50 years of coaching, and it may be the blow that knocks him out of coaching for good.

Tragedy strikes GAGE early

Only three months before the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials, 15-year-old Seoul hopeful Julissa Gomez boarded a plane to Japan to compete at the World Sports Fair. 

While practicing a Yurchenko vault (and being spotted by Fong) at the competition, Gomez suffered a devastating spinal injury, which left her in a coma. Gomez passed away as a result of her injuries three years later.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times after Gomez’s accident, Fong praised the resiliency of his gymnasts – none of whom quit after Gomez’s tragic accident. “At that age, kids think they are invincible,” Fong said. Later, he added, “Julissa certainly wouldn’t want national team members to stop competing, or want me to quit being the coach that I am.”

To make matters worse, this was not the first instance of one of Fong’s gymnasts suffering a debilitating neck injury on vault. Less than a year prior, GAGE gymnast and junior national team member Karen Tierney broke her neck attempting the same vault as Gomez. 

While Tierney was able to return to gymnastics, two similar injuries at the same gym within the span of a year – particularly spinal injuries, which are incredibly rare in gymnastics – led some observers to question training practices at the gym.

Controversy continues to surround Fong

For most coaches, the magnitude of Gomez’s injury would have spurred some change. This did not seem to be the case for Fong, who saw another one of his former gymnasts pass away only a few years after the Gomez accident. 

Christy Henrich – whose nickname was E.T., for Extra Tough – was another Seoul hopeful training under Fong. After missing the Olympic team by a razor-thin margin, Henrich pushed herself further into her training.

By 1991, three years removed from her Seoul campaign, Henrich had fallen victim to anorexia, weighing just 61 pounds. She died of multiple organ failure three years later, at age 22.

Henrich claimed after her 1990 retirement that Fong would call her “Pillsbury Doughboy” – an allegation he has denied.

While Fong was able to bounce back from Gomez’s accident, Henrich’s death brought renewed attention to training culture in elite gymnastics, including at GAGE, which saw many of its top gymnasts leave for other clubs.

Then came a lifeline for Fong and his now-wife Barutyan in the form of 10-year-old Terin Humphrey. When Humphrey’s parents first visited GAGE, they knew of the stories of Henrich and Gomez. “But when we met him, we felt like he was a great person,” Humphrey said.

Humphrey, along with Courtney McCool, would go on to serve as vital facets of the GAGE revitalization, guiding the American women to a silver medal finish at the 2004 Olympics. 

A new Al Fong? 

In a 2007 profile with ESPN, Fong declared a new era of GAGE gymnastics.

“There is no yelling or screaming,” he said. “If anybody who knew me 20 years ago saw this, they’d say ‘Bulls—.’”

But the recent SafeSport suspensions of Fong and Barutyan on grounds of alleged emotional and physical misconduct have prompted renewed scrutiny of whether meaningful changes were implemented.

In the wake of his scandals, Fong has portrayed himself as a misunderstood trailblazer. However, it’s a quote from Fong featured in Eastern Jackson County Missouri Online in 1999 which perhaps paints the clearest picture of Fong and how he thinks he has reconciled his controversial past. 

“I have a clear conscience. I can sleep at night because I know that I was not a part of that problem.”

Fong’s latest response

In December, the U.S. Center for SafeSport suspended Fong for five years and Barutyan for one, citing alleged emotional and physical misconduct.

“Gut-wrenching,” said Fong in a recent interview with Kansas City-area KSHB 4 News regarding the suspension. 

“It’s completely 180 from who we really are,” he continued. 

Almost 20 years into the “new GAGE” era, Fong’s response to his suspension is strikingly similar to his 2007 account and even his 1995 interview.

“Some people might think speaking loudly, yelling… they get that misconstrued. But that is not something that happens in this gym,” responded Fong when asked if he had committed physical or emotional misconduct. 

In an interview with KCTV, Fong seemed to shift the blame onto the athletes who “turned on [GAGE] through social media, because it seems like it’s a popular thing to do.”

Fong’s long career has given rise to stars and has seen controversy come and go, but 38 years after the Gomez incident, this suspension may mark a turning point in his career.

Pending appeal, the next five years will be the first in almost 50 years of American gymnastics not to feature Al Fong. 

Fong and Barutyan have denied wrongdoing and are planning to appeal their suspensions. SafeSport suspensions are administrative actions and do not constitute criminal findings.