Lit Gloss

Chalked Up.

by Liz Spikol

Full disclosure: I went to grade school with the author of Chalked Up: Inside Elite Gymnastics’ Merciless Coaching, Overzealous Parents, Eating Disorders, and Elusive Olympic Dreams. Jennifer Sey was the ponytailed girl in the red bodysuit who awed me and my classmates by doing handsprings across the floor while the rest of us struggled with cartwheels, and left school early so her mom could take her to gymnastics practice. Sey was friendly and adorable in her Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, but we never really knew her; she was golden and untouchable, blessed with an otherworldly talent. Reading Chalked Up, it’s clear that Sey—now director of marketing at Levi’s and a filmmaker—wonders if that talent was worth cultivating. Though there were some highs, most of Sey’s experience was punishing. Never has a book so eloquently portrayed how unnatural gymnastics is for the human body, including the self-harm gymnasts do in order to keep in form. A seven-time member of the U.S. Gymnastics Team, Sey went to the World Championships in 1985, where she incurred what many believed would be a career-ending injury. Incredibly, she roared back to become U.S. champion in 1986, and was honored as the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Athlete of the Year in Gymnastics. Then, at the peak of her career, she walked away from it all, scarred by a legacy of childhood pain and parental dysfunction. Sey’s mother comes off especially badly, not noticing—and not caring, when she does—that her daughter is in physical and psychic pain. Chalked Up is revealing and intelligent, and written from the point of view of someone who got out just in time and who now has enough distance to reflect humorously and without self-pity.