Content warning: discussion of physical and emotional abuse (in moderate detail) and mention of sexual assault.
There are many reasons to love sport: it makes you fitter, it is part of socialising and it may motivate you to reach your goal, among other things. Amateurs and professionals alike can enjoy the multitude of benefits sport provides. Nevertheless, there are some aspects of sport that have been neglected in discussion, and thus remain prevalent. Large scandals, such as those involving doping, will reach the headlines; meanwhile, the pain many athletes experience due the nature of sporting environments is infrequently thought of.
In late June 2020, Netflix released the documentary ‘Athlete A’, which discussed the emotional, physical and sexual abuse that elite gymnasts faced in the USA. Many viewers were shocked by the horrific truths revealed. I wasn’t surprised. Toxic sporting environments can proliferate in grassroots level sports as well as at national and international level.
Although many well-known athletes have already spoken out publicly about their experiences of harassment, bullying and abuse in sport, so far there has been little collective effort to change toxic cultures. To prevent the harmful health outcomes caused by abuse and neglect, it is important for the relevant organisations to reflect and take action.
In sport, psychological abuse is experienced to different extremes and gradually intensifies over time. Due to little quantitative research on prevalence, it is difficult to know the true numbers of those who have experienced emotional abuse. However, one UK study reported that from a sample of 6000 young athletes, 75% had experienced psychological abuse. In sport, this form of abuse usually involves repeated criticism, sarcasm, shouting, scapegoating, belittling, name-calling, racism and exclusion. Aside from the harmful impact on the psyche of the athlete and potential adverse health outcomes, once emotional abuse is sustained, it facilitates physical and sexual abuse.
In the documentary Athlete A, Olympian Jamie Dantzscher recalls how she trained and competed on broken toes, or even a fractured back. Physical abuse is generally considered to involve direct contact, for example hitting, causing non-accidental harm. While this may occur in sport, physical abuse can manifest in other forms. Some scenarios of physical abuse include, but are not limited to, the intensity of the sport exceeding the capacity of the child’s immature growing body, non-consensual doping, required participation when injured or exposure to undue cold or heat.
Another Olympic gymnast, Jenifer Sey, who powerfully explains how a young athlete might regularly experience physical abuse and neglect, stated: “you think you’re hungry, you think your ankle hurts… but you’re told and you’re screamed at that you’re lazy and fat and there’s nothing wrong with your ankle”.
As a result of the toxic environment they train and compete in, children become compliant, and subsequently they are more vulnerable. Children and young adults can be conditioned into accepting abuse, therefore they become more likely to remain silent, if later further incidents of abuse, even sexual in nature, occur.
Since a methodology of cruelty in training has a detrimental impact on the physical and mental well-being of young athletes, it appears counter productive for coaches to engage in this behaviour. Coaches measure their success through the performance of their athletes in competitions, just as in schools, teachers measure their success by the academic performance of their students in exams. Therefore, a coach’s ambitions can lead them to unduly pressure their athletes to excel. Coaches who abuse their power may do so with the false belief that their actions benefit the athletes. Furthermore, coaches who were trained using similar techniques are more likely to reflect this behaviour in their own coaching. As abuse becomes more extreme, coaches may be conscious of their actions, yet choose to prioritise their own immediate success over the long-term well being of their athletes.
Children being abused in sporting environments may not report these cases for several reasons. From an early age, society teaches children to respect adults in a position of authority and follow orders. Subsequently, a child abused by a coach will not act, since they have been routinely taught not to question their superiors. In addition, older children might have concerns about putting their future sporting endeavours in jeopardy by questioning their coach. Repeated manipulation of children can result not only in their acceptance of the situation, but also in leading them to think that it is normal. If no alarms are raised, it could be because the athlete no longer recognises the treatment they receive as abuse.
When a child discloses their abuse to a parent, it is likely the adult will struggle to know what action they should take. A paper, entitled Parents’ Reflections on their Child’s Experiences of Emotionally Abusive Coaching Practices, published in the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology in 2012, describes how parents are lead to accept the practices of their child’s coach. The paper claims that parents are socialised into the culture of elite sport and can become silent bystanders to the abuse carried out by coaches. Thus, parents who believe abusive coaching techniques are normal and beneficial may be reluctant to report when required. Additionally, coaches are frequently in a state of loco parentis and in some cases parents are not allowed to spectate training sessions. Consequently, they cannot observe the abusive behaviour for themselves, which in turn isolates the child.
Organised sporting institutions are rarely designed to favour athletes who raise a concern. Sports clubs are usually run by parent volunteers whose children are members, and therefore there can be a conflict of interest when someone reports bullying. Moreover, sport clubs aren’t monitored or inspected the way schools are, hence poor practices can be left unquestioned. Finally, in the case of large sporting organisations, when an individual reports their negative experiences, they will often find that the organisation will try to silence their voice in order to maintain their ‘wholesome’ image, with the goal of prioritising sponsorships and profit.
Recently, after former British gymnasts had openly spoken about their experiences, UK Sport and Sport England co-commissioned a review of British Gymnastics. Hopefully, this will stimulate beneficial change and encourage other sporting organisations to follow suit.
In the meantime, children and young people should be reminded that it is not necessary to endure maltreatment in order to achieve success. They need to be aware that if they find themselves in an abusive situation, not only in sport, but also in any aspect of life, they have the right to say no and remove themselves form the situation. Sometimes this can require courage, but seeking the help of an adult or another person who can be trusted will hopefully help to sort the problem.
