Gymnastics coaches Al Fong and Armine Barutyan, a married couple who have coached numerous U.S. Olympic and world medalists, were suspended by SafeSport on Monday for “physical & emotional misconduct,” according to the organization’s disciplinary database.
Fong and Barutyan are the founders of Great American Gymnastics Express (GAGE Center) in Blue Springs, Mo. The two have coached top-level athletes for decades, including recent World medalists and Olympic alternates Leanne Wong and Kara Eaker, as well as 2004 Olympic silver medalists Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool.
Fong’s suspension lasts until Dec. 22, 2030. Barutyan, who is suspended for a year, was a member of the U.S. federation’s coaching staff for the Junior World Championships in November and Junior Pan American Games in August, because GAGE athlete and junior world gold medalist Lavi Crain competed on both teams.
“While we fully support the mission of SafeSport and the importance of creating healthy, safe training environments for athletes, we are deeply disappointed by this outcome and respectfully disagree with the findings,” a statement posted on GAGE’s Instagram on Tuesday said.
It continued: “These determinations were made without eyewitness testimony and through a committee-based process. We believe the decision does not fairly reflect the full record or context, and we intend to exercise our right to arbitration.”
Respondents have 10 days to request an arbitration hearing, in which a third-party arbitrator decides whether to uphold suspensions. According to data from SafeSport, only 5.5 percent of eligible findings went to arbitration in the past year. Of that group, arbitrators upheld code violations in 83 percent of cases. The center has seen reports rise from 281 in 2017, when it was created, to 8,098 in 2024.
USA Gymnastics declined to comment on the suspensions, and SafeSport refused to comment on any specific cases.
“We are grateful to those who come forward with their stories, which allow us to hold individuals accountable and shift sport culture,” a SafeSport spokesperson said.
In the 1990s, two gymnasts who had trained with Fong died while attempting to make the U.S. Olympic team. In 1991, 18-year-old Julissa Gomez died three years after she was paralyzed following a vaulting accident. Christy Henrich, 22, died in 1994 from multiple organ failure caused by starvation, having developed anorexia and bulimia after a judge told her she needed to lose weight.
Henrich, who had failed to make the U.S. Olympic team in 1988, told The Washington Post in 1993 that Fong had called her “Pillsbury Dough Boy,” which Fong denied.
