Natalie Wojcik: Being an athlete "shouldn't have to come along with the objectifying of women’s bodies"
The Michigan gymnast, who has soared to two career NCAA titles, speaks out after a video of her dazzling beam routine was met by negative comments about her appearance.
Artistic Gymnastics
When University of Michigan artistic gymnast Natalie Wojcik dismounted the beam during their dual meet competition against Big Ten rival Minnesota in February, she knew she had nailed it.
The postgraduate student jumped up and down, hugged her coach and high-fived her teammates. The score came up confirming what the audience already knew: a perfect 10.0.
Days later, her routine ended up all over the internet as high-profile accounts - including ESPN’s SportsCenter - reposted her effort.
But for Wojcik, who has been one of the NCAA’s best gymnasts in recent years having claimed the balance beam national title in her freshman year and helped lead the Wolverines to the 2021 team title, the initial excitement quickly soured.
"Along with that visibility, unfortunately, came a lot of negative comments relating to kind of my body and my leotard," Wojcik exclusively told Olympics.com last month. "And so most of them kind of centred around the idea that my leotard wasn’t fitting me properly or that they just aren't made the same way that they used to, or gymnasts aren't having the same bodies that they used to.”
Natalie Wojcik found negative reaction "really surprising"
The reaction caught the 23-year-old, who will compete this week on the uneven bars at the NCAA Championships in Ft. Worth, Texas, off guard.
"Those negative comments and the volume of them was really surprising to me," said Wojcik.
She decided to do something, to say something, to highlight how her body and women’s bodies were not up for discussion.
Wojcik took to her social media, posting two separate videos including parts of her perfect 10.0 beam routine followed by comments about her body and outfit.
"I think maybe earlier in my career, I wouldn’t have said anything," Wojcik said of the posts, "But I feel like I’m a point in my career where I really have a voice and a platform where I can confidently share both highlights and some of the more challenging aspects of being an athlete.
"I truly just wanted to bring awareness to the content of what they were saying. I just wanted to highlight the fact that visibility of women’s gymnastics - and of women’s sports in general - shouldn’t have to come along with the objectifying of women’s bodies or the sexualisation of women in sports.”
The response, Wojcik says, was mostly positive, though some commenters doubled down on their original posts.
She added, "I feel like I almost had like a small sense of community in that comment section on those two videos. There were current gymnasts and former gymnasts responding and saying that they've experienced similar comments.
"It was really cool to be able to respond to those people and just let them know that they are seen and heard and valued, not because of their body, but because of the human that they are and the amazing things that they can do."
The four-time All-American is a highflier on and off the field of play.
She has helped elevate the Michigan squad to historic heights, including a first-ever NCAA title two seasons ago. Wojcik stayed on for an additional season while working toward a Masters in social work which she hopes one day will lead back to sport.
"I'm really enjoying the programme. I'm doing my field placement, which is a requirement of the programme, basically an internship with the athletic counselling team,” she said.
"I'm running some social media pages. I'm scheduling mental health 101s which is our introduction of mental health that we do with every team every year. I'm doing a little bit of everything with them and it's been a really cool role to take on. And I'm hoping that after the program I can work in an athletic department."