What Is Needed to Prevent the Abuse of Female Athletes?

At #WeRideTogether, answering this question is part of our mission. We want sports to be safe, healthy, and fun for all. We also understand that survivors’ voices are essential in the fight against abuse in sport.

In 2021, to elevate the voices of athlete-survivors, #WeRideTogether launched the Survivor Stories Program, an ongoing initiative that allows survivors to voluntarily and anonymously share their stories. These narratives are published on our website—a publicly available collection of lived experiences. 

This past year, #WeRideTogether conducted a study examining sixteen Survivor Stories shared by female athletes. With the athletes’ consent, these sixteen narratives were analyzed for patterns that could inform abuse prevention. We are proud to share that this work has been published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse.

While every experience of harm is unique, we identified three common themes: power imbalances, sport-specific risk factors, and a lack of abuse prevention education. 

In the Words of Survivors

The following quotes are drawn from the sixteen Survivor Stories included in our study.

• "I didn't think it was abuse at the time because it didn't look like what I thought abuse was supposed to be."
• “I had put sexual abuse in the category of a stranger behind bars scenario, based on movies and media … He was married with kids. That made it harder to believe he’d do something wrong.”
• “I felt like I couldn’t say no … he was the one deciding if I’d make the next team.”
• “I was conditioned into thinking it was normal to be in a hotel alone with a male coach by the age of 13 or 14.”

What These Stories Tell Us

• Power imbalances can make it difficult for athletes to say “no” to authority figures.
• Each sport has a unique set of risks that make athletes vulnerable.
• Education can help athletes recognize abuse when it happens, allowing them to seek help.
  

Five Ways to Make Your Sport Safer

1. Learn About Power Imbalances

Understanding power imbalances allows us to recognize when an authority figure is leveraging their position of power in harmful or inappropriate ways.

• Power Imbalances 
• What to do about Power Imbalances? 

2. Pay Attention to Risks

Given that every sport has its own set of risk factors, protecting athletes looks different from one sport or sporting environment to another. 

• Sport Risk Factors 
• Risk Assessment Mapping Exercise 

3. Challenge Stereotypes About Abuse

Stereotypes about both victims and perpetrators of abuse can create confusion, making it more challenging for athletes to recognize abuse if it happens. 

• There is No ‘Perfect Victim’ or ‘Perfect Survivor’ 
• PSA: It's Not Just a Ride Home 

4. Educate Yourself and Others

Education is one of the best tools for preventing abuse. Athletes, parents, coaches, and bystanders must know how to recognize the signs of abuse and safely intervene.

• Learn to Recognize the Six Stages of Grooming 
• #WRT Resources 
• Window Rule PSA
• Safe, Active Bystander Intervention PSA

5. Listen to Survivors

Survivors have firsthand knowledge about how abuse occurs in sport. Listening to their experiences can help protect future athletes. 

• Learning from Athletes to Create Safer Sporting Cultures 
• Survivor Stories

Final Takeaways: 

• Many of the athlete-survivors struggled to recognize abuse because their experiences did not align with common stereotypes and media portrayals of perpetrators and victims.
• One-on-one coaching, travel, and highly competitive environments can all create unique vulnerabilities for athletes.
• Survivors frequently reported not having the language to identify grooming and abusive behavior when it was happening.
• While statistics help quantify the problem, survivors provide insight into the subtle ways abuse develops and persists within sporting environments.
• Preventative education is increasingly appreciated for its ability to stop abuse before it happens; young athletes must have access to this education, too.
• To safeguard our athletes, we need more education, more research, and more survivor-centered studies.

Learn More

The full study, published in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, is available here. As with all of our resources at #WeRideTogether, this study is free and open access.

The supplemental material for this study can be found here.


Emma Borders
Colorado College Student
info@weridetogether.today