McKayla Maroney was one of the faces of American gymnastics at the 2012 London Olympics, helping the U.S. women win team gold as part of the Fierce Five and taking home an individual silver medal on vault. But behind the medals, the gymnast later revealed the pressure and fear she carried through her years of training under Artur Akopyan and Galina Marinova at All Olympia Gymnastics Center. Now, with her former coaches facing renewed SafeSport scrutiny, Maroney’s decade-old comments about those years are drawing attention once again.

As of September 15, 2026, Akopyan and Marinova are listed on USA Gymnastics’ Suspended & Restricted Persons list with an interim restriction of “No Unsupervised Contact with Minors.” The latest development comes after the U.S. Center for SafeSport reopened its investigation into the coaches in September 2024 following allegations from former gymnasts. 

It started when in 2016 GymCastic interview, the Olympic silver medalist spoke openly about her experiences with Akopyan and Marinova, particularly the fear she felt around injuries. Maroney said she was “terrified to get hurt” and explained how being injured could affect her relationship with her coach. When the hosts described the coaching style as one that “breaks gymnasts,” she agreed.

Years later, allegations from other former All Olympia gymnasts brought the coaches under SafeSport scrutiny. Freidin was a former gymnast at All Olympia Gymnastics Center, where Artur Akopyan and Galina Marinova coached. In May 2020, after seeing the abuse allegations against another gymnastics coach, Maggie Haney, Freidin wrote publicly that she had experienced “constant body shaming, pinching, throwing, yelling [and] degrading” during her time at All Olympia.

She then contacted the U.S. Center for SafeSport in 2020. According to records reviewed by The Washington Post, she gave SafeSport a list of people who could potentially corroborate her allegations. One of those people was former gymnast Abigail DeShazo. Even DeShazo also told The Washington Post that she had also witnessed Akopyan violently throw the young gymnast during an aerial flip.

In 2022, SafeSport closed the investigation administratively stating that it had no sufficient evidence to proceed, but that the case could be reopened if additional witnesses and/or claims were submitted. The situation changed in 2024 after The Washington Post investigated allegations surrounding Akopyan and Marinova.

In July that year, the newspaper reported that 10 former gymnasts had described Akopyan abusing them or their teammates when they were young, with allegations including throwing, dragging and slapping gymnasts. One former gymnast, Desiree Palomares, alleged that Akopyan slapped her across the face when she was around 11.

At the time, Akopyan and Marinova denied the allegations of abuse. Years later, however, the two coaches are once again facing scrutiny. The governing body makes clear that such an interim measure is not a finding of misconduct. Still, the development has brought renewed attention to what Maroney herself said about her years under their coaching and raises a difficult question about what might have been different had she continued in the sport.

The career that ended just as Maroney reached her prime

Maroney had already built an outstanding career before she turned 20. In 2011, she helped the U.S. win team gold at the World Championships and claimed individual gold on vault. A year later, she became one of the faces of the London Olympics as part of the Fierce Five. Maroney helped the U.S. win Olympic team gold and added a silver medal on vault, with her first vault and famous “McKayla is not impressed” expression.

She returned to the world stage in 2013 and continued to dominate on vault. At the World Championships in Antwerp, Maroney won her second consecutive world vault title, becoming the first American woman to achieve that feat. She was also on the same U.S. team as Simone Biles, who won her first world all-around title at the competition. Yet 2013 would prove to be the final competitive season of Maroney’s career.

She suffered persistent health problems after the World Championships, underwent left-knee surgery in 2014 and missed the entire season. She continued trying to return but never competed again, despite initially hoping to make another Olympic run at the 2016 Rio Games. By the time Maroney announced her retirement on February 24, 2016, at just 20 years old, injuries and health problems had taken a heavy toll. But her own comments suggest that the physical struggles were not the only burden she was carrying.

In her 2016 GymCastic interview, Maroney described repeatedly pushing herself to return before burning out again. “Since October of 2014 I would go back to the gym and then burn myself out for three months,” she said. She also recalled being so exhausted and unhealthy that “I couldn’t get out of bed really.” Maroney spoke openly about depression and the darker period of her career, explaining that depression “sucks everything out of you.” 

Eventually, Maroney walked away from gymnastics at an age when many fans might have expected her career to have several more chapters. She later reflected on the relief she felt after stopping, saying, “I just felt like a weight lift off me.” With her former coaches now facing renewed SafeSport scrutiny, those words from a decade ago are drawing attention again.