The world of USA Gymnastics has seen one of its most popular academies fall in GAGE, aka Great American Gymnastics Express. GAGE is based in Blue Springs, Missouri, and was founded in 1979 by coach Al Fong.
The academy came under fire in December 2025, when Fong and his wife and co-owner, Armine Barutyan, were served with 5-year and 1-year suspensions, respectively, by the U.S. Center for SafeSport for alleged physical and emotional misconduct towards their gymnasts.
USA Gymnastics Terminates GAGE’s Club Membership
Over the years, GAGE has shaped the careers of elite athletes, including Leanne Wong, a 2022 World team gold medalist, and Aleah Finnegan, who competed at the 2024 Olympics.
Now, GAGE has been stripped of its USAG Member Club status, a mark of official recognition for gyms that uphold safety and compliance standards. This move comes just two months after the suspensions of Fong and Barutyan, with USA Gymnastics explaining that GAGE repeatedly failed to honor SafeSport’s disciplinary actions, even after multiple warnings and opportunities to make things right.
GAGE also violated other SafeSport Code terms, including allowing suspended individuals to participate in the club’s activities. Subsequent owners Karla Grimes and Tiffany Davenport also faced suspensions in February 2026.
USA Gymnastics announced that athletes currently registered with GAGE will have a window to transfer to another USAG member club. After March 2, they will no longer be eligible to compete in USAG-sanctioned events.
The Reason Behind Fong And Barutyan’s Suspensions
Fong earned a gymnastics scholarship at Louisiana State University before starting GAGE in 1979. He quickly rose to the top of the gymnastics world and trained Olympians like Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool (both 2004 silver medalists), as well as Ivana Hong (2007 World team champion).
Fong and Barutyan were served with suspensions in December 2025 after a multi-year investigation into Fong that became public in early 2023, where former gymnasts and parents claimed that the training environment at GAGE had verbal and physical mistreatment of athletes that raised concerns under SafeSport’s abuse prevention standards.
At the time, GAGE released a statement saying they were ‘deeply disappointed’ with SafeSport’s decision. Now, it looks like GAGE will face major operational problems, given that Fong and Barutyan will be prohibited from coaching, training, judging, or contacting athletes in SafeSport-covered programs, with Fong’s suspension running until 2030 and Barutyan’s ending on December 22, 2026.
Fong’s career has not been without controversy. He previously faced intense scrutiny following the tragedies of 1988 Olympic hopefuls Julissa Gomez and Christy Henrich, events that led him to step away from coaching for a time.
