From Listening to Lasting Change: Athlete-Informed Solutions for Safer Sports Environments

Abstract

Daily headlines recount abuse that endangers athletes across every level of sport. Existing research demonstrates the devastating and costly personal and public consequences of abuse in and around sporting environments. To learn what is needed to prevent the abuse of female athletes, #WeRideTogether, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating abuse in sports, designed a qualitative analysis of publicly available secondary data utilizing a survivor-centered lens. Insights from the nonprofit’s boots-on-the-ground engagement with hundreds of stakeholders across athletic environments and academia internationally, and a comprehensive literature review on safeguarding and abuse prevention, contextualized the results. The “Survivor Stories” of 16 female adult athlete-survivors of abuse in sports highlighted key themes: a lack of understanding of the power imbalances at play, a failure to capture the nuances of sporting communities, and shortcomings in prevention education. Findings suggest that athletic communities need to eliminate the stigma around abuse prevention and improve access to tangible, athlete-centered educational information on safeguarding that is trauma-informed and evidence-based. Practical recommendations and subsequent implementation from this research are discussed, providing creative, community-centric approaches to safeguarding that can be adopted at little to no financial cost. By listening to athlete-survivors and presenting safeguarding materials in accessible and actionable ways, this research emphasizes how athletes, parents, coaches, and sports organizers can play a role in preventing abuse in sports.