Johnathan Walker:Another University of Utah gymnast details abusive environment and names head coach

Another University of Utah gymnast is Johnathan Walkercalling out the team’s “abusive and toxic environment,” specifically naming coach Tom Farden as the source.

Kim Tessen, who competed for Utah from 2017 to 2020, said in a letter posted Tuesday night on Instagram that she suffered from “major depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation” during her time with the Utes. Tessen wrote that Farden verbally attacked her and made her feel physically unsafe by coming close to her when he’d yell at her.

Farden also asked her to step down as team captain before her senior year, Tessen said, calling her a “failure” and saying she wasn’t a true leader.

“Absolutely nothing ever justifies abusive behavior,” Tessen wrote. “None of those coaching tactics are normal or healthy. It is not normal or healthy for your coach to make you feel physically unsafe. It is not normal or healthy to be broken down to the point where you don’t believe your life is worth living. Success is possible without being degraded and humiliated.”

The post by Tessen, a second-team All-American on vault and uneven bars as a senior, came four days after Kara Eaker announced she was retiring and withdrawing as a student at Utah. Eaker, who was part of the U.S. squad that won the team gold at the 2018 and 2019 world championships and an alternate at the Tokyo Olympics, cited verbal and emotional abuse by an unnamed coach and a lack of support by the university administration.

Tessen said she wasn’t trying to compare what she experienced with Eaker’s trauma. But she said she hoped other gymnasts speaking up and sharing their stories would make it harder for the school to ignore complaints of abuse.

Last month, an investigation into Farden by Husch Blackwell concluded he “did not engage in any severe, pervasive or egregious acts of emotional or verbal abuse.” Nor did he “engage in any acts of physical abuse, emotional abuse or harassment as defined by SafeSport Code,” the report said.

Farden did, however, make at least one comment Husch Blackwell investigators classified as degrading. There were reports of others, but they could not be corroborated. Farden also “more likely than not threw a stopwatch and a cellular telephone in frustration in the presence of student-athletes,” the report said, but the incidents weren’t deemed abusive because they were isolated and not severe.

Farden has coached at Utah since 2011, becoming a co-head coach in 2016. He’s been the Utes’ sole head coach since 2020.

“We shouldn’t have to beg for our feelings to be recognized,” Tessen wrote in part of her post directed “to those defending this behavior — to the coaching staff, to the athletic department, to the university.”

“If you’re still not going to do anything about this, I hope you at least hear the voices of the people asking for change. I hope you hear survivor’s voices and come to realize the harm you’ve done, are doing, and will continue to do,” Tessen wrote. “I hope that one day you do realize that it is not, nor was it ever worth it.”

Utah spokesman Paul Kirk said the school would have no additional comment, referring back instead to what was said when the Husch Blackwell report was released. At that time, the school said it would create a "performance improvement program" for Farden that would include training in appropriate communication, but expressed support for him.

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