Dear gymnastics faithful,

On Aug. 31, Gymnastike regretfully posted an article that brought attention to an unfortunate event and linked to inappropriate content involving one of the most endearing athletes in the community, McKayla Maroney. Spreading gossip or promoting material that sullies the reputation of our athletes and reflects poorly on our sport is not in line with our editorial voice.

We are not NBC News, ABC, BuzzFeed, Huffington Post or any of the dozens of traditional media outlets that covered this story. While they can feature a story of that nature, we are to be held to a higher standard because of the die-hard nature and youth of our audience. We accept that responsibility even though we clearly didn't live up to it or even recognize the sensitivity of our audience. For that I am sorry.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to Ms. Maroney, her family and fans. I most want to sincerely apologize to the parents and young girls training hard to be elite. As a parent, I would not want my daughter to come to Gymnastike and see our post. It was a major error for us to put it on the site.

I would also like to apologize to our Gymnastike team. They are a group of great, hard-working women who were blind sided by the post. As a group we leverage the resources between our verticals to create meaningful and high quality content. In this instance it clearly went wrong.

I understand that by our actions we have lost the trust of many of the passionate gymnastics community. I understand and accept responsibility for that loss. We will work tirelessly to win back the faith of the parents and young girls who visit Gymnastike to consume wholesome content about the sport they love, and to be inspired.

We hope to build back that bond by covering this great sport with the same passion that we have over the last six years and with a renewed understanding of our core editorial values.

Sincerely,

Martin Floreani

CEO - Flocasts