We must strengthen our commitment to abuse-free sport

Many articles, on this platform and in the academic literature, rightly acknowledge and call for sport and development programming to reach groups who have been historically disadvantaged. Reshaping sport and development to explicitly speak to the needs of groups like women and girls, LGBTQ+ people, racial minorities, and people with disabilities could have a profoundly positive impact on marginalised people worldwide. Sport is not immune from the larger societal influences of discrimination, ableism, homophobia, and gender-based violence. Therefore, in designing programs for these groups, special consideration needs to be given to safeguarding these especially vulnerable populations from abusive behaviours. 

Though the research on abuse in sport is incomplete at best, the academic literature suggests that women and girls, gender and sexual minorities, and athletes with disabilities are more likely to experience abuse than their male, cisgender, heterosexual, non-disabled counterparts. Below is a brief synopsis of the current literature on abuse in sport for these disadvantaged groups. 

Women and girls

Violence against women and girls continues to be an enormous challenge worldwide. Mirroring studies outside of sport, most of the academic literature on abuse and misconduct in sport points to women and girls being especially vulnerable to emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. Despite strides for gender equality in sport in the last decade, women and girls remain marginalised by sport cultures that were founded on masculine privilege. 

Athletes with disabilities

Once again, mirroring the broader societal patterns outside of sport, athletes with disabilities are two to three times more likely to experience emotional, physical, or sexual abuse than athletes who do not have a disability. Disabled athletes may be especially vulnerable to neglect and sexual violence. 

These identities often intersect in ways that create an even higher likelihood of abuse. According to the United Nations Population Fund, girls and young women with disabilities are the single most vulnerable population for experiencing sexual harm.

LGBTQ+ people

If we accept that many sport programs continue to privilege a strict masculine ideal, it may not be surprising that LGBTQ+ athletes report experiencing abuse at higher rates than their heterosexual, cisgender peers. Homophobia in sport can take multiple forms of abuse, some directly violent and others more indirect, leading to multiple outcomes ranging from assault to social isolation from the team.  

As international sport federations continue to debate transgender athlete inclusion in sport, it is worth mentioning that discrimination in sport has broad implications for gender minority athletes. A study of U.S. athletes found that 76.2% of gender nonconforming, nonbinary, and transgender athletes reported experiencing discriminatory behaviour in sport and higher rates of sexual assault. 

If we care about sport and development and believe in its potential to impact lives, we must accept and work to change the facets of sport that might undermine its positive outcomes. As we envision how to make sport and development more equitable and accessible to diverse and vulnerable populations, we must include safeguarding explicitly into its mission.

In doing so, we might acknowledge the potential of sport and development to go beyond mere compliance with safeguarding policies to a more proactive position, where sport and development programming can be a vehicle for abuse prevention outside of sport. By modelling best practices in athlete safeguarding schemes through appropriate relationships with adult role models, accountability via reporting mechanisms, along with training and education for all participants on abuse prevention, sport and development can become a vehicle for ending larger societal patterns of harm against our most vulnerable communities. 

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Nicole Johnson is a graduate student at the University of Denver studying International Human Rights with a specialisation in International Sport. Nicole’s research interests include sport governance and the role of sport organisations in protecting and violating human rights.