Team GB gymnastics coach Amanda Reddin investigated over conduct

An investigation has been launched into Britain’s top women’s gymnastics coach Amanda Reddin, who has led Team GB to unprecedented Olympic and world championships success during her eight years in charge, following multiple allegations about her conduct.

The news was confirmed in a statement from British Gymnastics, who said they had agreed with Reddin that she would temporarily step aside from her role as head national coach “to allow an investigation to proceed into claims about her conduct as a coach”.

Related: Australian gymnastics abuse review to focus on culture and not individual cases

“The investigation will be completed by an external independent expert and any outcome actioned immediately,” it added. “Our processes and investigations will also be scrutinised by the independent review.”

The Guardian understands that GB Gymnastics’ performance director, James Thomas, will take over Reddin’s role while the investigation is carried out.

Reddin’s methods at GB Gymnastics have been called into question by leading athletes, with Rio Olympian Ruby Harrold claiming that she presided over a “culture of fear” at the Team GB camps in Lilleshall, and described food portions that left her and her fellow gymnasts hungry.

Harrold said: “How would you feel if you were 21 years old being given ultimately a baby plate to eat off? It’s demeaning ... it’s unhealthy.”

Olympic bronze medallist Amy Tinkler also launched a blistering attack on British Gymnastics on Tuesday after they dismissed her complaint against Reddin, saying she felt “sick” at the outcome – and warning that it would discourage other gymnasts from speaking out.

After revealing for the first time that Reddin was part of a complaint about bullying in the sport made last December, Tinkler said that the governing body had told her that her allegations against Reddin had been dealt with and the matter was closed.

“On Friday, and only in response to media pressure, I was emailed informing me that my complaints had been dealt with and the matter closed,” she wrote on Twitter.

“The way I received this information made me sick. It reinforced mine and every gymnasts’ fear, which is that their complaints aren’t dealt with fairly and independently. This is why we don’t speak up. This is why we suffer in silence. We know that to speak up is a pointless, career-ending task.”

British Gymnastics confirmed that an investigation into Tinkler’s complaint about bullying while she was at South Durham Gymnastics Club is still ongoing.

Separately, the BBC and ITV News has reported that Reddin, who is due to lead the women’s gymnastics team to next year’s Games in Tokyo, has also been cleared of one historical allegation of abuse.

The BBC said that a gymnast called Jenny, who had been coached by Reddin at the Bright School of Gymnastics in the 1980s, told BBC Sport that she had been slapped and verbally abused by the coach.

In its response, British Gymnastics said Reddin had categorically denied slapping gymnasts, saying she would only give “little taps and nibbles” to show gymnasts how they should be working. It also said she denied using “excessive force” on a gymnast to stretch them.

In a response to the allegations, which was made before the investigation against her was announced, Reddin said: “I completely refute the historical claim, and the investigation by British Gymnastics did not uphold the complaint. I completely refute these claims, it is wrong that my reputation within the sport that I love is now subject to a trial by media rather than through the proper processes.

“I would welcome the allegations be submitted to the independent review into alleged abuse in gymnastics to ensure the integrity of the process is protected for both athletes and coaches.”

Meanwhile UK Sport and Sport England have announced that that independent review into abuse in gymnastics at all levels of the sport in Britain between 2008 and 2020 would be led by the QC Anne Whyte. It said the review would look into:

• Whether gymnasts’ wellbeing and welfare is (and has been) at the centre of the culture of British Gymnastics, its registered clubs and member coaches and if not, why not

• Whether safeguarding concerns and complaints have been dealt with appropriately in the sport of gymnastics and if not, why not

• Whether gymnasts, or their parents, carers or guardians, have felt unable to raise complaints with appropriate authorities and if so, why.

The independent review came after dozens of British gymnasts spoke out about abuse in the system, including the world championship medallists Becky and Ellie Downie, who said that “cruel” behaviour was “so ingrained in our daily lives that it became completely normalised” - although they did not mention any coaches by name.

Among the other gymnasts to speak publicly about the abuse they had faced were the British Olympians Francesca Fox, who said she was constantly told she “looked like a hippo” and the the four-times Olympic medallist Louis Smith, who accused British Gymnastics of not wanting to taint its image by alerting the public to complaints made against coaches.