Promoting Safety in Sport
A collaboration between Dr. Anna Enright and Sage DeChiara
Content Warning: athlete abuse
The benefits of participating in sports have been clearly documented. Sport participation benefits physical, psychological, and social development. However, for those athletes who experience various forms of maltreatment, sport participation can be harmful to physical, social, and mental health.
The World Health Organization defines maltreatment as all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation which results in actual or potential harm to health, survival, development, or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust, or power (World Health Organization, 2022).
Maltreatment includes sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, neglect, various types of harassment, bullying and hazing. In recent years, there have been several highly publicized cases of athlete abuse, including in the sport of rock climbing (Miller, 2022).
The psychological evidence is clear: there are detrimental short-term as well as life-long effects of maltreatment. Reflecting back to their youth experience, an athlete who experienced a breach in the coach/athlete relationship shared this, “I felt like I lost the climbing gym and community as a safe place. I had to recreate this for myself.” Psychological health, relationships and overall well being can be impacted, leaving athletes struggling long after their participation in sport.
Before 2017, athletes experiencing maltreatment were only able to file a complaint with the specific sport organization one was participating in. This meant there was a huge risk to the athlete being able to continue in the sport without the fear of retaliation. With the development of SafeSport (March 2017), there is now a third-party reporting system. In theory, this is good, but according to a recent article published by USA Today, Safesport currently receives 150 complaints per week and are projecting 8,000 for 2023 alone (Armour, 2023). Some cases can and have taken up to two years to come to resolution! Barring the 2020 pandemic year, cases have increased year over year since 2017. Given there was no third party reporting prior to 2017, one explanation might be that folks are feeling safer and are reporting these incidents at a higher rate. It might also be that the reporting system is finally giving us some data on the occurrences of maltreatment in sport. These data certainly point to maltreatment being a big problem in the sport world.
Creating a safe space for athletes to thrive is crucial. The International Olympic Committee Consensus Statement defines safety in sport as an athletic environment that is respectful, equitable, and free from all forms of non-accidental violence to athletes (Mountjoy, Brackenridge, Arrington, et al, 2016).
It is important to recognize that there are specific challenges that are unique to sport which create vulnerabilities for athletes. These inherent vulnerabilities exist due to:
1. The intensity and demands of training and competitions
2. The importance placed on the coach-athlete relationship
3. Media/sponsorship
4. Travel away from home
(Fortier, Parent, Lessard, 2019)
Safety starts well before a reportable event. USA Climbing has a comprehensive and clear policy addressing the issue of athlete safety. SafeSport training is required for coaches, athletes, and volunteers. Educating coaches, parents, and athletes is an important step, but it cannot be the only step. The climbing community must be vigilant and not ignore the signs when something is amiss. The phrase we hear at airports, “see something, say something,” comes to mind. A 2020 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that 46% of athletes were unaware that there was a risk of abuse in being a sport participant (Mountjoy, 2020).
These issues are difficult to talk about, but healthy boundaries protect all parties. To prevent a reportable event, discussions about proper boundaries and what crossing boundaries look like are important to clarify both within the coaching staff and with teams. Please be mindful and acknowledge the sensitivity of the topic prior to discussions.
Demonstrating, establishing, and maintaining boundaries creates an atmosphere which builds trust and safety. Coaches spend endless hours with their teams. They are developing talented athletes but also human beings. Role modeling healthy relationships is the most important job of a coach!
Modeling good boundaries as a coach
1. Have conversations about personal space and privacy
Teams spend many hours together and often travel as a group. What are the rules around personal space, bathrooms, sleeping arrangements when teams are away? What is acceptable, and what is unacceptable? Model what to say when personal space is violated. Inform athletes about the power of “No” especially in cases where they feel uncomfortable. Reinforce that if at any time someone–a staff member, coach, or another athlete–is making them uncomfortable or violating their boundaries, they can say “no.” Make sure your athletes can verbalize why these rules must be followed.
To have conversations with athletes means coaching staff must discuss these issues among themselves and establish clear expectations. What rules will they follow, as coaches, for travel, training in various gyms or when climbing outdoors?
2. General Code of Conduct discussion
Review SafeSport and the gym’s code of conduct regarding child protection policy around touching, personal space and consent. Make expectations clear to your athletes, and give examples of how staff and coaches meet those expectations. Examples include meeting with individuals in open spaces, no sharing or keeping secrets, and no name calling or talking negatively about other athletes.
We assume everyone has an understanding of proper boundaries, but it’s important to address this issue as if we are defining boundaries for the first time. Clear expectations, for example, spell out the power dynamic to a young coach who is working with athletes that may be of similar ages. These athletes are not friends, so meeting them outside team activities would not be appropriate. Having clear rules for the coach/athlete relationship protects coaches and athletes from ending up in questionable situations.
3. Cultivating the right kind of trust
As a coach, building the right kind of trust with athletes and teams is a responsibility. Coaches are not mental health providers or parents or friends. The trust that they are building is a trusting coach/athlete relationship where the boundaries are clear. The coach is working to support and guide the athlete to be a better athlete and ultimately a better human. Blurring the professional role of coach is confusing to young athletes. Gaining the right kind of trust will create a safe space for athletes.
Listen actively, but know, as a coach, you do not have to manage concerns alone. Get support and guidance if an athlete comes to you with a concern. Take these conversations seriously.
4. There is power in community
Who are your mentors and consultants when you have questions or concerns? If something doesn’t feel right, do you have a safe person to talk to about what’s going on and get support and guidance as to how to proceed? All coaches and athletes would benefit from identifying such a person in their lives.
To advance a culture of safe sport our continued work is to:
1. Prioritize athlete health and wellbeing over the the winning-at-all-costs mentality,
2. Normalize athlete mental health,
3. Pay attention to equity, diversity, and inclusion, and
4. The climbing community needs to continue to work with governing bodies and organizations to ensure safe sport issues are being handled expeditiously and in a manner that protects the parties involved.
There has been a history of fear and silence around these issues in sport. Taking these conversations out of the dark and shining light on them is a big step toward creating a sport where we truly prioritize our athlete’s mental health and wellbeing. A positive or negative sport experience can have a lifelong impact on the physical and psychological development of our young athletes. We can all agree the goal is to have the experience be a joyful and safe one. Transparency, accountability, and conversations, protect both athletes and coaches and promote respect and safety in team relationships.
Sage DeChiara
Sage DeChiara grew up in Western Massachusetts where she was first introduced to climbing outdoors through family friends. She began competitively climbing when the first dedicated climbing gym came to the area. She’s been climbing ever since, for over a decade now. She continued her climbing journey in college where she coached youth competitive teams and helped to start the climbing team at her school, Brandeis University. Upon graduating with a degree in public health, Sage moved north to Vermont where her climbing focuses shifted back outdoors. She continues to coach youth climbing at her local gym. Safety in youth climbing is an essential topic for Sage based on her experiences as a youth climber and as a coach who now has the opportunity to create a safer sports environment for youth athletes.
Bibliography
Armour, N. (2023, May 22nd). What is the U.S. center for Safesport and what does it do? USA Today.
Fortier K, Parent S, Lessard G. Child maltreatment in sport: smashing the wall of silence: a narrative review of physical, sexual, psychological abuses and neglect. Br J Sports Med. (2019) 54:4–7. 10.1136/bjsports-2018-100224 [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar][Ref list]
Miller, D. (2022, Feb. 10th) Former USA Climbing Team Member and Coach Arrested On Child Rape Charges. Outside.
Mountjoy, M. (2020). # Time2Act: Harassment and abuse in elite youth sport culture. British journal of sports medicine, 54(7), 367-368.
Mountjoy M, Brackenridge C, Arrington M, Blauwet C, Carska-Sheppard A, Fasting K, et al. International Olympic committee consensus statement: harassment and abuse (non-accidental violence) in sport. Br J Sports Med. (2016) 50:1019–29. 10.1136/bjsports-2016-096121 [PubMed] [CrossRef] [Google Scholar] [Ref list]
World health organization, (2022, September 19th). Child Maltreatment.
(2023, Feb. 28th) Safe Sport and Response and Resolution Policy. USA CLIMBING.
