We need to make amateur sports a safe space for all
SPORT HAS SHAPED OUR LIVES. — TESSA VIRTUE AND SCOTT MOIR
The amateur sport world has served as our playground, our classroom, our obstacle course and our boardroom. It has been the backdrop through which we discovered our abilities and ourselves. Sport has shaped our lives, instilled in us a sense of confidence, and taught us the importance of resilience. We have learned what it means to be champions, and more importantly, how to deal with defeat. But throughout the roller-coaster of dreams and disappointment, successes and sacrifice, loaded schedules and loneliness, we held tightly to the notion that sport did not define us. Rather, it was part of us, and part of our story. Unfortunately, however successful our story may be, there are far too many journeys that end as a result of broken trust between athlete and coach.
The role that coaches play in the lives of athletes simply cannot be understated. They are our inspiration, our teachers and our mentors. We spend more waking hours training and travelling with our coaches than we do at home with our families. Coaches are, for many young athletes, almost as important as parents; we trust them with our performances, with our hopes and with our vulnerabilities. We put our faith and futures in their hands, expecting and believing in the strength of a shared common goal. When this trust is broken, or when power is abused, the fallout is heartbreaking to athletes and their families, and threatens the credibility of amateur sport around the world.
In 2015, four women who once dreamed of standing atop a podium took a courageous and lonely step: they told their stories of sexual assault to the authorities. In 2017, they witnessed their former coach get convicted and sent to prison for having abused his power and violated their trust. Watching these four brave women band together is an inspiration to us all.
This week, they are sharing their stories with the world because they want to help put an end to the abuse of power in sport. They want to ensure that sport associations work harder to empower and protect their athletes, and never again turn a blind eye to abuse. These women have our fullest and most heartfelt support.
Through the collaboration of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, The Coaching Association of Canada and the Canadian Centre for Child Abuse, a comprehensive safety program for dealing with the multiple forms of abuse has been built, though it is not yet in place. We are lending our voices to this movement, asking that all sport organizations work to have an accredited protection program in place.
By ensuring that the organizations responsible for amateur sport are better equipped to end the abuse of power, we will be helping to protect young athletes. We will be helping them to reach higher for their dreams, catalyzed by connections to people deserving of trust.
We are very grateful to have had such incredible experiences provided by our sport; children and young athletes deserve the same opportunities. The credibility of amateur sport depends on trust, on people who are willing to take a stand, and on all of us demanding nothing less.