BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A personal feud between a Stanford gymnast and his coach has escalated into a lawsuit.
Gymnast Kaien J-Spencer said his coach publicly degraded and humiliated him throughout his three years at Stanford, causing him to suffer a mental health crisis and transfer to UC-Berkeley.
Coach Thom Glielmi allegedly said J-Spencer “was a waste of medical and athlete-dining resources” and discouraged assistant coaches from helping him, according to the lawsuit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Monday. “Glielmi also
questioned whether (J-Spencer) had friends, whether those friends actually liked him, and whether they knew him,” the suit said.
Glielmi, who has been Stanford’s gymnastics coach for 25 years and won eight national championships, didn’t return a request for comment Friday.
J-Spencer enrolled at Stanford in fall 2022. Glielmi allegedly told J-Spencer that there was an 80% chance he would be cut and wouldn’t be recruited by a top program.
J-Spencer performed well at a team competition and asked to be considered for an upcoming lineup, and Glielmi allegedly said no because J-Spencer “f***ing annoyed the s***” out of him, the suit said.
Stanford removed J-Spencer from the team in August 2024 and only reinstated him after his mother intervened, the suit said.
J-Spencer said he had a successful season as a junior, including winning an NCAA event versus Penn State.
J-Spencer said he complained to Stanford HR about Glielmi in May 2025, and Glielmi allegedly responded by discouraging assistant coaches from spotting J-Spencer during practice.
Glielmi banned J-Spencer from participating in team competitions for his senior year, so J-Spencer transferred schools, the suit said.
J-Spencer is suing Stanford for breaching the student-athlete handbook and inflicting emotional distress.
Unfortunately, a story like this is all too common. Coaches are often on a power trip and abuse their authority. They wrongfully think humiliating an athlete will motivate them to improve their performance. Sometimes it’s just personal because there is a personality conflict. A responsible and mature coach can overlook personal issues. Coach should be a mentor, not a bully.
“Stanford removed J-Spencer from the team in August 2024 and only reinstated him after his mother intervened, the suit said.”
That is a stand-out sentence to me that suggests there must be more to this story. College is an ideal time for separating from your parents and learning how to handle situations; a time to grow up and learn to function as an adult.
This just scratches the surface of the issues Stanford was made aware by others regarding this issue and other issues such as non compliance and ncaa violations and have done nothing to fix it. There will be more that comes out. Stay tuned.
That’s what stands out, not the bullying. Interesting.
Grow as adults correct however if an adult is potentially abusing their position of power a student should have access to an advocate like a parent to act and intervene on their behalf. On reading the sentence I concluded that had there been proper grounds for removal a reinstatement would not have been granted, irrespective of parental lobbying.
This does not even scratch the surface of misconduct. Stanford knew about this and did NOTHING!!
Definitely more to this story, this coach seems to pick on one person at a time, gymnasts, colleagues, personnel He intimidates them, tries to squeeze them into a corner, and hides behind his minions, who are actually getting in the wor done weather it be right or not.
And I don’t care how old you are:
when someone humiliates you
Tells you your not worth medical care
And causes mental abuse
There comes a point that being belittled and probably not ever having to deal with a coach who could tear somebody down so hard.
So it’s not from a mommy that’s helping.
This is real. And this mommy took the right route.
This is what hurts people. This is what we don’t need, and too much of this type of behavior from a coach should have been “Safe Sported out”!
He hasn’t been safe sported yet and USAG is a joke when it comes to all that. Thom owns the Stanford club and so if he were to be safe sported, they would lose their club sanctions with USAG and he wouldn’t be allowed to step foot in the gym. Stanford will pay for this to go away.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t shock me one bit.
This is no secret about how Thom Glielmi treats his athletes. He owns the Stanford club program as well so nothing will happen to him. Stanford will pay out and keep Thom. Ask ANY athlete, coach or judge and none of this will come as a surprise. So sad. Hopefully Spencer is able to rebound after this.
So many NCAA violations at the Stanford gym. Recruiting kids from the club team, when club parents handle donations to the college team. Not suspicious at all
This coach has a lifetime parade of athletes that have been successful both as gymnasts and as men. Championships won, companies started, lifelong friendships made and countless accolades from former athletes and the highest levels of the sport and NCAA. One lawsuit thrown into the public that has not been litigated or decided upon should not erase decades of actual facts on the record without a single major complaint. Winning is hard. Thom is an incredible coach and human being. This needs time to play out before the masses rush to judgement.