Types of Abuse in Sports

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#WeRideTogether's vision is to create safe and healthy environments and cultures in all sports. This means safeguarding from all types of abuse and harm that take place in sports.

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This article provides an accurate overview of these various types of abuse and notes on who is committing and experiencing the acts of misconduct, according to research. By increasing our collective awareness and education on what abuse may look like in the context of sports and who perpetrators may be, we can better keep our athletes, teammates, coaches, and communities safe and healthy. 

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The definitions of the terms below are derived from ChildHelp’s Speak Up Be Safe for Athletes Curriculum, the United States SafeSport Center’s Code, Laureus USA’s Safeguarding Policy, and cited research on abuse in sports. We must remember that terms and definitions vary across disciplines, jurisdictions, and cultures.

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Neglect 

Neglect refers to actions or the absence of actions that fail to provide care, supervision, affection, protection, and support for an athlete’s basic needs, health, safety, and well-being and that are likely to result in serious impairment of the athlete’s holistic development. In sports, neglect can present in a variety of ways:

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• Physical neglect: failure to provide for physical needs, safety requirements, inadequate supervision during training, competition, and travel, allowing bullying or hazing
• Emotional neglect: withholding attention, failing to provide psychological support and well-being, or ignoring the athlete’s emotional needs
• Medical neglect: failing to provide an athlete with needed medical attention, disregarding medical directions pertaining to time to heal from illness or injury, forcing athletes to play/perform while injured, improperly treating injuries
• General neglect: failure to provide an athlete with appropriate food and water, shelter, using inadequate and unsafe equipment, and/or the ill-treatment of athletes with disabilities, failure to report abuse  
• Improper training and overtraining: forcing an athlete to train in a way that is dangerous to their body, not allowing enough recovery time between strenuous sessions

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The 2021 “CASES: General Report. The prevalence and characteristics of interpersonal violence against children (IVAC) inside and outside sport in six European countries” study found that neglect was the third most common type of interpersonal violence experienced by children in sports, with 37% having experienced neglect. The “Prevalence of Maltreatment Among Canadian National Team Athletes” study found that the highest proportion of athletes, 68.8%, reported experiencing at least one neglectful behavior and that coaches were the most frequently identified perpetrators.

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Physical Abuse

Physical abuse refers to intentional or unintentional physical actions that cause or threaten to cause harm to athletes. This does not include accidental injury or well-regulated sport-sanctioned conduct acceptable in certain sports. In the sporting context, physical abuse can look like this:

• Contact: punching, hitting, poisoning, drowning, burning, shaking, beating, biting, striking, strangling, slapping, stabbing, pulling hair/ears, grabbing, pushing, cutting, paddling, scarring, whipping, branding, hitting with objects/sports equipment, rough corrections of position  
• Non-contact: forcing an athlete to play while injured or return to sport without medical clearance, fabricating symptoms of injury on behalf of the athlete, deliberating inducing sickness, confining and isolating an athlete in a small space, forcing an athlete to assume a painful position for no legitimate reason, providing any illicit substance including drugs, alcohol, or nonprescribed medication to an athlete 

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According to the 2021 Global Census of Athlete Rights Experiences Report, 37% of athletes (35% of females, 38% of males) experienced one form of physical abuse at least once as a child in sport. The 2021 SafeSport Culture Climate Survey found that 21.7% of athlete participants indicated being physically harmed, noting that “Black, Multiracial, and Asian athletes were more likely to experience physical harm and rates of physical harm experienced by those who indicated that they were bisexual were almost double when compared to any other sexual orientation.”

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Psychological/Emotional Abuse

Psychological or emotional abuse refers to acts and behaviors, most often repeated and persistent, that interfere with and negatively impact an athlete’s positive emotional and social development and self-worth. In athletics, this can happen online and in person and can look like this:

• Verbal acts: name-calling, body-shaming, ridiculing, humiliating, bullying, threatening, discriminating, mocking, spreading rumors, quick oscillation between praise and criticism, promoting disordered eating 
• Physical acts: ignoring, isolating, segregating, denying coaching and guidance, punching/throwing things around the athlete 
• Stalking: monitoring, observing, excessively messaging 
• Tactics: manipulation, gaslighting, controlling an athlete's social interactions, domination, guilt-tripping, mind games, silent treatment, possessiveness, frightening 

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The 2020 Magnitude and Risk Factors for Interpersonal Violence Experienced by Canadian Teenagers in the Sport Context study results showed that “79.2% of athletes reported at least one experience of psychological violence.” Similarly, the 2022 Psychological, Physical, and Sexual Violence Against Children in Australian Community Sport: Frequency, Perpetrator, and Victim Characteristics found that psychological violence was the most prevalent form of violence experienced in sports as a child at 76%. When focusing on para-athletes, the 2022 “Para athletes’ perceptions of abuse: a qualitative study across three lower resourced countries found that the majority of para-athletes described personal experiences with psychological/emotional abuse. 

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Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse is conduct or threatened conduct that is forced and/or coerced, and is sexual in in nature that the athlete does not fully understand, cannot consent to, or has no choice to consent to. In athletics, this may look like this:

• Indecent exposure: exposing or requesting child sexual abuse material or pornographic material, forcing an athlete to look at or produce sexual images or activities, and encouraging an athlete to behave in a sexually inappropriate way 
• Nonconsensual contact: masturbation, kissing, rubbing, and touching with an object or body part (clothed or unclothed) of an athlete's genitals, breasts, or buttocks
• Nonconsensual intercourse: oral sex, any penetration with an object or body part 
• Grooming: a pattern of behaviors and tactics to gain the trust of an athlete through manipulation, control, isolation, and secrecy with the intent to exploit or abuse them 
• Inappropriate relationships: a form of abuse that can be misunderstood by an athlete as consensual when the relationship involves an imbalance of power; consent is impossible as the athlete’s options are limited due to force, coercion, or manipulation 

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A 2021 scoping review study Gender-based violence in sport: prevalence and problems found prevalence rates for ‘sexual violence’ between 0.2% and 14%, and for ‘sexual abuse,’ the prevalence rate varied between 0.3% and 14%. Similarly, the 2021 Global Census of Athlete Rights Experiences Report found that 13% of athletes experienced one form of sexual abuse at least once as a child in sports (21% of females, 11% of males) and that “sexual abuse was perpetrated by fans, other players, or their coaches.” The 2021 SafeSport Culture Climate Survey stated that “athletes who experienced sexual assault indicated that it most often happened with coaches, trainers, or another sports administrator (55%), or with an athlete peer (45%).

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Hazing 

Hazing refers to actions or practices that intend to or likely subject an athlete to harmful circumstances and/or activities as a condition to join or be socially accepted by a group, team, or organization. StopHazing describes hazing behaviors as follows:

• Intimidation: deception, assignment of demerits, silence period with threats for violation, social isolation, demeaning names, expecting certain items to always be in one’s possession
• Harassment: verbal abuse, threats or implied threats, forced nudity, forcing to wear embarrassing attire, degrading or humiliating skits, sleep deprivation, sexual simulations
• Violence: forced substance consumption, physical assault, branding, forced ingestion of vile substances, water intoxication, kidnapping, sexual assault  

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The 2018 United States study College Student Hazing Experiences, Attitudes, and Perceptions: Implications for Prevention found that 42.7% of students experienced hazing on a varsity athletic team, 29.5% on a club team, and 26.6% on an intramural or recreational team; and, that “more than 40% of respondents reported that a coach or organization advisor had knowledge of hazing activities and more than a quarter say these individuals were physically present when hazing occurred.” Here are some examples of hazing in baseball, hockey, and football. 

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Exploitation

Exploitation is an abuse of power when an athlete is harmed or treated unfairly for gain or benefit. In the world of sports, this can look like this:

• Financial abuse: financial control over an athlete (withholding, limiting access, stealing, or lying about funds), forced labor without fair compensation
• Sexual exploitation: forcing sexual activity for profit, recording, distributing, allowing others to watch sexual activity, exposure to disease 
• Trafficking: transporting athletes for economic gain and/or forced labor or sexual acts, withholding documentation and paperwork 

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The 2021 global Census of Athlete Rights Experiences Report found that 51% of athletes experienced economic exploitation as a child athlete, with examples ranging from “unfair distribution of funds to the denial of financial benefits and the removal of scholarship.” The 2020 Department of State “Trafficking in Persons Report” cited that “within Europe’s soccer industry alone, it is estimated there are 15,000 human trafficking victims each year.” Here is an example of the sexual exploitation of minors in weightlifting. 

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Discrimination 

Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of athletes or groups based on attributes or protected categories. Simply put, it is treating some athletes differently than others because of certain characteristics they have. Protected characteristics may include age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, ability, marital status, pregnancy status, sexual orientation, genetic and health conditions. When discrimination occurs, athletes are negatively impacted by unfair decisions, practices, and policies. 

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The 2021 SafeSport Culture Climate Survey found that approximately 48% of athlete participants indicated they had experienced discrimination in some form during their involvement with their governing body. The 2021 global Census of Athlete Rights Experiences Report found that 33% of athletes experienced discrimination at least as a child in sports. Media coverage provides examples of such discrimination faced by transgender athletes in the NCAA and powerlifting, as well as black athletes. 

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Harassment

Harassment is unwelcomed conduct that causes fear, humiliation, annoyance, offends, degrades, or reflects a discriminatory bias that creates a hostile environment. In sports, this can look like this:

• Verbal: Threatening, ridiculing, using slurs and offensive language or jokes, insults
• Physical: Touching, intimidation, or assault
• Sexual: unwanted advances, making sexual requests, communication, and conduct of a sexual nature 
• Visual: displaying or forcing someone to look at offensive content
• Superiority: Attempting to assert dominance against a person or group based on discriminatory characteristics
• Conditional: Submission to, objection to, or rejection of such harassment as a term for employment, standing participation in, or sports-related decisions 

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A 2021 scoping review study Gender-based violence in sport: prevalence and problems, found that the most frequently studied form of gender-based violence in sport was sexual harassment: the prevalence of sexual harassment in sports across 10 countries varied between 1% and 64%. The 2021 SafeSport Culture Climate Survey found that 93% of individuals who experienced sexual harassment or unwanted sexual contact did not submit a formal report/complaint about it. Here are two different examples of sexual harassment in swimming and basketball. 

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Bullying

Conduct that intends to or does hurt, control, or diminish another athlete, often someone who may be viewed as vulnerable. Bullying characteristically is repetitive and intentional and leverages an imbalance of power between parties. Bullying behavior tactics can include and involve previously described elements of verbal, emotional, physical, financial, and sexual abuse, discrimination, and/or harassment. 

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Stigma as Abuse

Less known and discussed is how stigma, the societal or interpersonal disapproval or mark of disgrace towards a particular quality or circumstance, can be a form of abuse. Stigma can be associated with mental health, survivorship, domestic violence, disabilities, abuse, incarceration, and substance use. In sports, stigma can result in the shame, discrediting, negative perception, and mistreatment of an athlete. This means that the athlete may be treated differently due to stigma from others and may manifest as a lack of opportunity, a barrier to seeking help and resources, and dismissal of their experiences. 

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Examples in Sports

Incidents of misconduct in sports can be found on our Current Events page, which is regularly updated to promote education and awareness of this topic. Forms of abuse and harm can overlap, intersect, and happen simultaneously, as well as serve as precursors for other forms of abuse and harm. Lastly, abuse and harm can be conducted interpersonally, institutionally, and systematically. This means that abuse can happen between individuals, between an individual and a system of power (such as a sporting organization), or between an individual and rules, regulations, or policies. These examples in soccer, rowing, and artistic swimming demonstrate the interconnectedness of multiple types of abuse and the role of individuals and systems or institutions causing harm. 

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When it comes to abuse and neglect, one’s intentions or ignorance are not an excuse.

If you do not know the necessary standards, expectations, and guidelines to keep athletes supported and safe, please seek additional training, education, and resources. This is non-negotiable in terms of athlete well-being and the longevity and sanctity of our sports. 

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Sports can bring many benefits to our well-being and enrich our lives, whereas experiencing abuse can have damaging consequences on athletic careers and passions as well as one’s wellness at large. The team at #WeRideTogether believes that all sports, at every level of play, should be a safe and healthy place for everyone to grow, learn, train, and compete. We encourage all readers to share this article in their communities to promote education and awareness of types of harm prevalent in sporting environments so that we all can work together better regarding prevention and safeguarding. 

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‍For more information, please visit our blog or resources. If you need immediate support or assistance, visit our crisis resources.

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Kathryn McClain, MSW, MBA

Program and Partnerships Director at #WeRideTogether

kmcclain@weridetogether.today