Abusive coaches continue to slip through policing measures in Canadian gymnastics
TORONTO — Chad Meikle bounced around between five different Toronto-area gymnastics clubs over his decade as a coach.
According to court documents, he was also a diagnosed pedophile, and maintained a blog in which he called himself “Pedo-Coach.” Meikle blogged about his sexual attraction to young girls, and offered advice to other pedophiles.
Yet, he managed to seemingly raise no alarm bells within the gymnastics community until his arrest in 2006, when he counselled an undercover Toronto police officer on how to sexually abuse his (fictitious) eight-year-old daughter, in an online conversation that lasted nearly two hours. When police searched the 33-year-old’s house, they found young girls underwear allegedly taken from a gymnastics club, plus dozens of child pornography videos and photos.
More than a decade later, hundreds of gymnasts have been calling on the federal government for an investigation into their sport, as abusive coaches continue to slip through the cracks.