tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/sport-culture-20208/articlessport culture – The Conversation2024-02-21T21:23:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220852024-02-21T21:23:29Z2024-02-21T21:23:29ZSporting change: How an elite swim club in Western Canada is addressing bullying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576048/original/file-20240215-28-469ztc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C17%2C3970%2C2640&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Since sport participation has been linked to numerous benefits, it’s essential to foster an environment that allows individuals to engage in it free from bullying.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While most of the news coverage about <a href="https://athletescan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/prevalence_of_maltreatment_reporteng.pdf">maltreatment in sport</a> is focused on sexual abuse, a lesser-discussed, but <a href="https://sirc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Safe-Sport-Lit-Review.pdf">still prevalent and damaging aspect, is bullying</a>.</p>
<p>Bullying is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2022.102205">one of the leading causes of sport dropout</a>. Bullying can have <a href="https://www.stopbullying.gov">profound and long-term effects on individuals</a>, resulting in depression, health issues, behaviour challenges, low self-esteem and burnout, among others.</p>
<p>Since sport participation has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00913847.2020.1850152">linked to numerous benefits</a>, including lower levels of drug use, depression and anxiety, it’s essential to foster an environment that allows individuals to engage in it free from bullying.</p>
<p>The prevalence of bullying in sports poses a threat to sport participation, demanding a proactive approach to the issue. But <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/27/abuse-canada-sport-inquiry-hockey-gymnastics-soccer">what should sport communities be doing to address bullying?</a></p>
<h2>Dare to Care in Sport</h2>
<p>In an effort to create a team culture that combats bullying, <a href="https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/anti-bullying-program-sparks-positive-change-within-university-of-calgary-swim-club">the University of Calgary Swim Club implemented a pilot program in September 2017</a> that adapted the <a href="https://www.daretocare.ca/sports">Dare to Care program</a> to focus on sport.</p>
<p>The program required all members of the club — administration, athletes, parents, guardians and coaches — to participate in a bullying prevention workshop.</p>
<p>Over seven months, more than 1,000 club members took part in 1.5 to two-hour workshops designed and delivered by a national expert in bullying prevention and a former Team Canada swimmer. The workshops were offered at numerous times and locations for convenience. </p>
<p>The goals for implementing the Dare to Care workshops included educating and training team members on how to address and prevent bullying, reducing bullying behaviour, equipping the organization with skills to handle any bullying-related issues, and ensuring 90 per cent of members completed the training. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person in a t-shirt that says 'Coach' across the back faces toward a swimming pool and away from the camera" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576032/original/file-20240215-22-eefdfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576032/original/file-20240215-22-eefdfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576032/original/file-20240215-22-eefdfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576032/original/file-20240215-22-eefdfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576032/original/file-20240215-22-eefdfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576032/original/file-20240215-22-eefdfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576032/original/file-20240215-22-eefdfg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s important that all members of sport organizations are equipped with the proper definition of bullying and have tools to deal with it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The content for each workshop was interactive, age-appropriate and designed to equip participants with the tools and confidence to address bullying behaviour. </p>
<p>At the end of the seven months, members were invited to participate in my ongoing study investigating the impact of the Dare to Care program. I presented this research at the <a href="https://worldantibullyingforum.com/uploads/sites/2/2021/02/WABF-2019-Abstract_Book.pdf">World Anti-Bullying Forum in Ireland 2019</a>.</p>
<p>Since conducting this research, I have begun training and working for Dare to Care to deliver their anti-bullying workshops to sport organizations and clubs.</p>
<p>Participants were asked to complete a survey about bullying in the club and their opinions of the Dare to Care in Sport program. Some were also invited to participate in an interview for more in-depth information on bullying and the impact of the Dare to Care program.</p>
<h2>Program feedback</h2>
<p>In the surveys and interviews, club members said they believed bullying was present in sport, even if they personally had not seen it. </p>
<p>Participants believed there were a few reasons for the presence of bullying in sport. The first reason given was jealousy. One parent interviewee said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Someone is good and someone wants to be better, and rather than do the work to be better, the bullying could be a shortcut; it is just sheer jealousy. Even if it doesn’t get you there by taking the other person down, it might make you feel better because you are making them feel worse, right?” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The second reason identified was competition. Another parent interviewee said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Part of it has to do with the winning at all costs or a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality. The pressure can be immense and some use whatever advantage is available, including bullying and harassment.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The third and final reason suggested was parental involvement. One parent interviewee said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I can see the pressure from a parent affect the athlete, and how they treat people impacts their success in their sport.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Club members also felt that educational programs to address bullying were very beneficial. The Dare to Care in Sport program was praised for being mandatory and inclusive of all members. One interviewee said: “It was just super clear to know that the swimmers were on the same page, the coaches were on the same page.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young woman and a young man in swimsuits high five while standing in an indoor pool" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576045/original/file-20240215-16-h8oh65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576045/original/file-20240215-16-h8oh65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576045/original/file-20240215-16-h8oh65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576045/original/file-20240215-16-h8oh65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576045/original/file-20240215-16-h8oh65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576045/original/file-20240215-16-h8oh65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576045/original/file-20240215-16-h8oh65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Encouraging participation in sport should go hand-in-hand with a commitment to fostering a culture of respect, inclusivity and fairness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Key takeaways from the program included a common definition of bullying and identification of acceptable behaviours, consequences for bullying, tools and strategies for addressing bullying as it occurs and appropriate and safe reporting mechanisms for bullying incidents and behaviours. </p>
<h2>Making sport safer</h2>
<p>The benefits of sport participation at any level are tremendous. It’s important that all members of sport organizations are equipped with the proper definition of bullying and have tools to deal with it. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.169">Many harmful behaviours in sport have been normalized over the years</a> as “just part of the game” or “building character.” Programs such as Dare to Care in Sport are taking a stand against these behaviours and making sport a more safe, inclusive and respectful environment for <em>all</em> participants. </p>
<p>Encouraging participation in sport should go hand-in-hand with a commitment to fostering a culture of respect, inclusivity and fairness. An additional resource leaders can use to accomplish this is the <a href="https://anchor.fm/sporting-change"><em>Sporting Change</em> podcast</a>, which focuses on many of these aspects.</p>
<p>It is critical to <a href="https://sirc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Safe-Sport-Lit-Review.pdf">continue to educate and ensure a safe sport experience</a> is created for all. Providing a comprehensive bully prevention education is one step forward to improving the culture of sport.</p>
<p><em>The author would like to acknowledge the contributions from the Dare to Care Team (Lisa Dixon-Wells, Mathieu Constantin and Raine Paul) to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Booke works for Dare to Care. After completing the research explained in this article, she began training as a facilitator to deliver the Dare to Care in Sport workshops. </span></em></p>The prevalence of bullying in sports poses a threat to sport participation, demanding a proactive approach to address the issue.Julie Booke, Associate Professor in Health and Physical Education/Sport and Recreation Management, Mount Royal UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219572024-01-29T21:26:18Z2024-01-29T21:26:18ZHockey Canada’s issues go beyond a few bad apples — the entire system needs to be re-engineered<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/hockey-canadas-issues-go-beyond-a-few-bad-apples-the-entire-system-needs-to-be-re-engineered" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Five hockey players from Canada’s 2018 gold medal-winning world junior team are <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-michael-mcleod-charged-sexual-assault-world-juniors/">facing charges</a> in connection with an <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/ex-london-knights-star-turns-himself-in-to-police-amid-sexual-assault-probe-reports">alleged group sexual assault of a woman</a> after a gala event in London, Ont. six years ago.</p>
<p>Lawyers <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/london-world-juniors-sexual-assault-charges-1.7099554">identified their clients</a> as current and former NHL players: Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils; Dillon Dubé of the Calgary Flames; Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers; and Alex Formenton, currently of Swiss team HC Ambri-Piotta and previously of the Ottawa Senators. </p>
<p>The players’ lawyers have released individual statements saying their clients are innocent or will plead not guilty. </p>
<p>London police say they will hold a <a href="https://www.londonpolice.ca/en/news/anticipated-press-conference.aspx">press conference</a> about the investigation on Feb. 5. </p>
<p>Regardless of what follows, it has become increasingly clear that charges of sexual assault can no longer be silenced or swept under the rug in <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10075758/chicago-blackhawks-coach-sexual-assault-lawsuit-kyle-beach/">sport</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672">other contexts</a>. </p>
<p>Hockey Canada paid a still-undeclared settlement to E.M., the claimant in a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/hockey-canada-settles-sexual-assault-lawsuit-nhl-1.6467658">$3.55 million sexual assault lawsuit</a> against members of the 2018 world junior national team. Another $6.8 million was devoted to settlements related to Graham James, the junior hockey coach <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/graham-james-sex-assault-parole-theo-fleury-sheldon-kennedy-1.3762624">convicted of sexually assaulting young players he coached in the 1990s</a>. </p>
<p>Hockey Canada has spent a total of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hockey-canada-house-of-commons-committee-1.6533439">$8.9 million on 21 sexual abuse settlements since 1989</a>. Of that total, $7.6 million came from membership fees and the investment generated by the National Equity Fund, and $1.3 million came from its insurance. Hockey Canada has since announced <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hockey-canada-reserve-fund-sexual-assault-claims-1.6526862">it will no longer use funds from membership fees</a> to settle sexual assault claims.</p>
<h2>More than a few bad apples</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ethicalsystems.org/the-lucifer-effect/">Psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s “Lucifer Effect”</a> contends that, when dealing with abuse, it’s not just a matter of removing a few “bad apples” — often, the whole barrel is spoiled. The entire barrel-making system must be re-engineered to produce only the finest barrels to hold and preserve apples with integrity.</p>
<p>Sport safeguarding advocates argue that, while efforts like the recently announced <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/news/2023/12/backgrounder-the-future-of-sport-in-canada-commission.html">Future of Sport in Canada Commission</a> may address systemic issues by re-engineering sport leadership and governance structures, the remaining bad apples will continue to abuse power, derailing real change in Hockey Canada. </p>
<p>Those who abuse their power and benefit from power imbalance will exert that power to preserve the status quo. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2507052/Destructive_Leadership_and_The_Penn_State_Scandal_A_Toxic_Triangle_Perspective">Researchers have identified</a> that the typical leadership responses to abuse claims include complicity, collusion, control and cover-up. </p>
<p>There is evidence of this within many Canadian national sport organizations attempting change, including <a href="https://youtu.be/L6EGvl8-nA4?t=2">Hockey Canada</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/gymnastics/gymnastics-canada-leadership-changes-1.6757969">Gymnastics Canada</a>, <a href="http://integratedfocus.ca/?p=1470">Rowing Canada</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/canada-soccer-mishandles-sexual-harassment-allegations-1.6534967">Soccer Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/bobsleigh/storey-adjourns-heated-bobsled-skeleton-agm-1.6602960">Bobsleigh and Skeleton Canada</a>. </p>
<p>According to Zimbardo’s theory, leaders must remove the bad apples while addressing systemic issues — only then will they be able to create and maintain quality, lasting barrels. Otherwise, the existing bad apples will poison the new, rotting the barrel from the inside.</p>
<h2>Power in Canadian hockey</h2>
<p>Hockey Canada has seen wholesale change with the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hockey-canada-board-1.6612582">resignation</a> and reconstitution of both the <a href="https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/news/katherine-henderson-hired-as-president-and-ceo-of-hockey-canada">CEO</a> and <a href="https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/news/new-board-of-directors-elected-2023-corp">board of directors</a>. The <a href="https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/news/katherine-henderson-hired-as-president-and-ceo-of-hockey-canada">new CEO was appointed in September 2023</a>, but it’s important to note that new does not necessarily mean different. </p>
<p>Sexual assault is an abuse of power. One could argue that the culture of misogyny and sexual assault evident across hockey environments is a product of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-the-monday-edition-1.6531458/hockey-canada-can-t-be-trusted-to-fix-the-toxic-culture-it-fostered-says-prof-1.6531460">power abuse normalized across the hockey world</a>: </p>
<ul>
<li>Coaches hold power over athlete careers</li>
<li>Hockey Leagues hold power over coach careers </li>
<li>Funders hold power over CEOs </li>
<li>Veterans hold power over rookies </li>
<li>Men often hold power over women</li>
</ul>
<p>Though often well-intentioned, power imbalanced structures and hierarchies allow individuals and groups to abuse their power. <a href="https://youtu.be/Cxf_SRCcaGo">Power imbalance is often sought and preserved</a> as a misguided means to achieve stability, security, dominance and control. </p>
<p>However, the lack of independence can also lead to a lack of <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/441/CHPC/Brief/BR12173327/br-external/Jointly1-e.pdf">transparency</a> and concrete <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-sport-canada-nso-report-card/#table">accountability</a> processes, resulting in a recursive cycle of abuse and corruption — a phenomenon that has been well-documented in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.840221">academic</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/amateur-sports-coaches-sexual-offences-minors-1.5006609">media</a> and <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2014/bcp-pco/CP32-56-1990-1-eng.pdf">government</a> reports.</p>
<h2>Fixing the sport system</h2>
<p>Sport Canada leaders must remove the bad apples while re-engineering a new power-balanced sport system grounded in independence, transparency and accountability. We need only look to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352956643_The_Role_of_Leadership_and_Team_Culture_in_Enhancing_Sport_Performance_Outcomes">best practice in sport itself</a> as the blueprint for the Canadian sport system as a whole.</p>
<p>Independence must be built into the system by separating evaluation and education from qualification. Great coaches educate and evaluate athletes, but an independent body determines qualification based on gold medal standards. </p>
<p>For instance, the International and National Olympic Committees determine the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-qualifying-for-the-olympic-games-8235">qualification standards for the Olympics</a> and the international federations research and provide gold medal standards for each sport. </p>
<p>National sport organizations should be guided by their international federations to adopt well-researched performance targets, criteria and measures, all of which should be made publicly available. Sport Canada should then use these criteria to hold national sport organizations accountable. </p>
<h2>Greater transparency needed</h2>
<p>Too often, coaches and organizational leaders obscure criteria and procedures to allow for subjective decision-making. An excellent coach posts performance targets, criteria and measures early and often, and athlete performance outcomes daily and publicly.</p>
<p>This approach can be scaled to fit any kind of sport organization or group. Sport Canada must ensure evaluation criteria are comprehensive, public, objective and grounded within standards of practice.</p>
<p>Transparency creates a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305">partnership model</a> of shared goals and collaborative process, rather than a power-imbalanced model of authoritarian control and compliance.</p>
<h2>Sport Canada needs accountability</h2>
<p>Accountability demands concrete demonstrations of change. Sport Canada has been chastised for implementing <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-sport-canada-nso-report-card/#table">superficial box-checking processes</a> such as the <a href="https://nso.olympic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Canadian_Sports_Governance_Code.pdf">Canadian Sport Governance Code</a> and <a href="https://nso.olympic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Good-Governance-Framework-Sept-2021-1.pdf">report-card system</a>, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-sport-canada-report-cards-shelved/">which has since been discontinued</a>.</p>
<p>When boards of directors do not provide both advisement and a clear accountability framework, it is easy for CEOs or executive directors to abuse their power.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://sirc.ca/blog/gold-medal-governance/">sound governance principles</a>, Sport Canada needs to create a robust accountability framework that demands verifiable evidence of policy implementation and achievement of standards of practice as a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hockey-canada-federal-government-funding-restored-1.6812492#">condition of funding</a>. </p>
<p>To build sport organizations, structures, policies and processes that are safe, healthy and high-performing, the power balance of the system as a whole must be re-engineered and those inclined to abuse power must be removed.</p>
<p>Those who inflict harm must also be removed and criminally charged based on the law. Others who <a href="https://kpe.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/harassment_and_abuse_in_sport_csps_position_paper_3.pdf">cover up abuse or are neglectful bystanders</a> must be held to the same standards. Only through a commitment to independence, transparency and accountability can sport bodies become a space that champions not only excellence but also the well-being of all its participants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Walinga receives funding from SSHRC and SDRCC for research on sport, leadership, abuse. I was previously a member of the Rowing Canada board of directors and resigned in November of 2022.
</span></em></p>Hockey Canada has a new board and CEO, but it won’t make a difference unless the systemic issues are addressed through our sport leadership and governance structures.Jennifer Walinga, Professor, Communication and Culture, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1914972022-10-31T19:02:23Z2022-10-31T19:02:23ZThis Melbourne Cup, alcohol and sport collide. We need to watch out for domestic violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490762/original/file-20221020-25-1bq09z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1914%2C1279&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-squeezing-a-woman-s-shoulder-4379914/">Karolina Grabowska/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not everyone looks forward to the Melbourne Cup. Domestic violence and emergency services ready themselves for a <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">potential increase</a> in calls, call-outs and admissions.</p>
<p>But as our recent <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">review shows</a>, the Melbourne Cup isn’t the only major sporting event around the world linked to a rise in domestic violence. </p>
<p>Not everyone agrees on why this is happening. We show alcohol is just one factor.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-melbourne-cup-still-the-race-that-stops-the-nation-or-are-we-saying-nuptothecup-170801">Is the Melbourne Cup still the race that stops the nation – or are we saying #nuptothecup?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s going on?</h2>
<p>Police-recorded assaults and emergency department presentations for assault <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">increase</a> on or around the major sporting events in Victoria – the AFL grand final, Melbourne Cup and Formula 1.</p>
<p>In particular, domestic violence assaults <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">rise significantly</a> on the day of the Melbourne Cup.</p>
<p>In New South Wales, police data across six years shows domestic violence assaults increased <a href="http://fare.org.au/wp-content/uploads/The-association-between-State-of-Origin-and-assaults-in-two-Australian-states-noEM.pdf">by more than 40%</a> following State of Origin rugby league games compared with non-State of Origin nights.</p>
<p>Our review also shows domestic violence <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">increases</a> on days of, and around, major sporting events around the world. This includes major National Football League games in the United States and Canada, and soccer matches in Scotland.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whether-teams-win-or-lose-sporting-events-lead-to-spikes-in-violence-against-women-and-children-99686">Whether teams win or lose, sporting events lead to spikes in violence against women and children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why is this happening?</h2>
<p>Not everyone agrees on why domestic violence is linked with major sporting events. We know perpetrators are more likely to use violence or become more violent <a href="https://web.archive.org.au/awa/20090129005223mp_/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/93593/20090129-1148/Stakeholder+paper_2.pdf">during public holidays</a> in Australia. Both the AFL grand final and the Melbourne Cup receive a dedicated public holiday in Victoria on or around the event.</p>
<p>Alcohol is certainly a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/add.15485">risk factor</a> for increased frequency and severity of domestic violence. The use of alcohol during major sports events and over holidays is <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">well documented</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.anrows.org.au/publication/the-relationship-between-gambling-and-intimate-partner-violence-against-women/">gambling</a> and stress over income loss is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1524838014561269">also linked to </a> the increased use and escalation of domestic violence. These too can occur around the time of events, such as the Melbourne Cup.</p>
<p>But focusing on alcohol and gambling alone runs the risk of such violence <a href="https://media-cdn.ourwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/18101814/Change-the-story-Our-Watch-AA.pdf">being excused</a>. This focus can send the message that men cannot be held entirely responsible for their behaviour.</p>
<h2>A sport’s culture</h2>
<p>A sport’s culture can also be a <a href="https://xyonline.net/sites/xyonline.net/files/Flood%20Dyson%2C%20Sport%20and%20violence%20against%20women%2007.pdf">contributing factor</a> to domestic violence. Sport, violence, and what it means to be a man have long been recognised as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29338922/">connected</a>. For instance, coaches <a href="https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/boys-will-be-boys-assessing-attitudes-of-athletic-officials-on-sexism-and-violence-against-women">promote aggression</a> for performance.</p>
<p>There’s also an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">emotive connection</a> to sport. Sport fans display “irrational passions”, maintain “blind optimism”, have “highly charged” memories and passion that mimic “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.smr.2009.07.002">addiction</a>”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/toughen-up-snowflake-sports-coaches-can-be-emotionally-abusive-heres-how-to-recognise-it-110267">Toughen up snowflake! Sports coaches can be emotionally abusive – here's how to recognise it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">our review</a> also showed that not all sports or their events are associated with domestic violence. Each sits within a culture that differs from sport to sport and country to country. </p>
<p>Some studies we reviewed showed that contact sports, such as <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/126/1/103/1903433?login=true">American football</a>, were associated with increases in domestic violence. Meanwhile, other contact sports, for instance, rugby union in the United Kingdom, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620306766?via%3Dihub">were not</a>. </p>
<p>Soccer is a non-contact sport but was linked to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022427813494843">increased rates</a> of domestic violence in the UK. Traditional rivalry between opposing soccer teams had a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obes.12105">significant impact</a> on domestic violence rates.</p>
<p>Perhaps emotionally charged games may best indicate whether an increased rate in domestic violence is likely. Examples include finals, or when a team is close to winning or losing a league. Frustrating or controversial outcomes, such as poor play or refereeing decisions, may also predict a rise in domestic violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Soccer fan raising fist while watching soccer match" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frustrating or controversial outcomes, such as poor play or refereeing decisions, may also predict a rise in domestic violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-in-red-and-blue-top-raising-left-hand-54308/">Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An unexpected loss, for example, is connected with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr001">increased domestic violence</a> rates, more so if that game is also considered important, for example during finals or potentially exiting a World Cup. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620306766?via%3Dihub">a UK study</a> found that alcohol-related domestic violence significantly increased only when England won, not when they lost or drew. So losing is not necessarily the key factor.</p>
<p>Drinking motives may come into play here, with different supporters drinking (more) <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-four-types-of-drinker-which-one-are-you-89377">to celebrate or to cope</a>.</p>
<p>When taken together, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.15485?af=R">we can conclude</a> it’s the culture of a particular sport in a particular country, exaggerated by keen rivalry, how emotionally charged a game might be, and when the game is played, that can predict a rise in domestic violence. That’s in addition to increased gambling or alcohol use linked to these events.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sport-can-tackle-violence-against-women-and-girls-107886">How sport can tackle violence against women and girls</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can we do about it?</h2>
<p>Policies to address domestic violence associated with sport need to be tailored to the places where an event is taking place and how a country’s, or even state’s, culture influences sporting fans’ behaviour. </p>
<p>We need to think about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>when major sporting events are scheduled (ideally away from public holidays)</p></li>
<li><p>limiting alcohol availability and increased prices, particularly during major events</p></li>
<li><p>joint planning across police, health and specialist domestic violence services ahead of major sporting events</p></li>
<li><p>developing social marketing campaigns for fans to coincide with
with sporting events, such as the AFL grand final’s #liftyourgame. Such campaigns need to be free of alcohol and gambling sponsorship.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1573099860437385223"}"></div></p>
<p>Initiatives need to be developed with support from policy makers, state, and national sports organisations, as well as specialist domestic violence and emergency services. </p>
<p>They need to be effectively tailored to the sport, its fans, and the cultural context being targeted. They need to happen now and be evaluated.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>If this article raises issues for you or someone you know, contact: <a href="https://1800respect.org.au">1800 RESPECT</a> (1800 737 732), <a href="https://www.safesteps.org.au">Safe Steps</a> (1800 015 188), <a href="https://ntv.org.au">Men’s Referral Service</a> (1300 766 491) or <a href="https://mensline.org.au">Mensline</a> (1300 78 99 78). In an emergency, call 000.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>William Douglas, policy and projects officer at <a href="https://ntv.org.au">No to Violence</a> co-authored this article and is a partner in the research mentioned in it.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsty Forsdike currently receives funding from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions of the Victorian Government to research the prevention of violence against women through sport and has previously received funding from the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation to explore violence against women in sport. She also receives funding from the Victorian State Government Crime Prevention Innovation Fund and has previously received funding from the Department of Social Services, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Respect Victoria and Department of Social Services.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne-Marie Laslett receives funding from the
Australian Research Council and
*veski
*The Victorian Near-miss Award Pilot is being administered by veski for the Victorian Health and Medical Research Workforce Project on behalf of the Victorian Government and the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. Funding for the Pilot has been provided by the Victorian Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. The Victorian Near-miss Awards are provided to eligible individuals who narrowly missed out on the 2021 NHMRC Investigator Grant funding in the Emerging Leaders 2 stream.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Associate Professor Leesa Hooker currently receives funding from a Victorian Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions Crime Prevention grant. She does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no other relevant affiliations beyond her academic appointment.</span></em></p>For years, we’ve taken major sporting events, a public holiday, added alcohol and gambling, then watched domestic violence rates rise. It’s time we did something different.Kirsty Forsdike, Senior Lecturer, La Trobe Business School and Senior Researcher in Centre for Sport & Social Impact, La Trobe UniversityAnne-Marie Laslett, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe UniversityLeesa Hooker, Research Director, Rural Judith Lumley Centre, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1918312022-10-06T17:05:54Z2022-10-06T17:05:54ZThe Toronto Star is making the right move by renaming the Lou Marsh trophy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488357/original/file-20221005-20-99fn0c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C52%2C4992%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bianca Andreescu was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year in 2019. The trophy is awarded annually to Canada's top athlete as chosen by a panel of journalists.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hans Deryk</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-toronto-star-is-making-the-right-move-by-renaming-the-lou-marsh-trophy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/lou-marsh-trophy-name-change-1.6596137"><em>Toronto Star</em> recently announced</a> it will be changing the name of the Lou Marsh Award, effective this year.</p>
<p>Since 1936, the award — <a href="https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/en/pages/our-stories/exhibits/snapshots-of-ontarios-sport-heritage/influence-of-sport-on-the-arts-literature-music-and-cultural-identity/lou-marsh">named after athlete and sports journalist Lou Marsh</a> — has been <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lou-marsh-trophy">given annually to Canada’s “top athlete of the year”</a> based on a vote by journalists across the country.</p>
<p>During a summer spent working at Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, I frequently passed by the Lou Marsh Trophy, one of the most prestigious awards in Canadian sport. </p>
<p>The trophy itself, a 73-centimetre solid marble trophy, is a fitting representation of the award’s place in Canadian society. Unlike the small cup that is given to each recipient of the Lou Marsh Award, the actual trophy is a massive structure that cannot be physically lifted by any one person. </p>
<p>While working at the Hall, I heard stories about the monument repeatedly cracking the foundation on which it rested. As it turned out, no foundation could adequately support such a heavy load.</p>
<h2>A piece of Canadian history</h2>
<p>The Lou Marsh Award occupies a special place in Canadian sport and sport history. It creates a deeply personal connection between our sporting figures and the nation they represent on a global stage. </p>
<p>However, as scholars and athletes have recently contended with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/opinion-lou-marsh-trophy-1.6273039">the fraught legacy of the trophy’s namesake</a>, the Lou Marsh Award has itself become a ponderous weight for those who receive it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man wearing a striped Canada jersey running in a 400-metre race" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488353/original/file-20221005-19-qal5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488353/original/file-20221005-19-qal5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488353/original/file-20221005-19-qal5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488353/original/file-20221005-19-qal5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488353/original/file-20221005-19-qal5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488353/original/file-20221005-19-qal5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488353/original/file-20221005-19-qal5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Damian Warner, pictured here during the decathlon 400-metre run at the World Athletics Championships in July 2022, was the recipient of last year’s Lou Marsh Trophy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although the athlete-centered award is intended to be one of the highest honours that can be given, cutting across gender or sporting distinctions, these recipients have accepted it under the shadow of Marsh’s legacy.</p>
<p>In February 2021, Janice Forsyth, professor of Indigenous Land-Based Physical Culture and Wellness at the University of British Columbia, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lou-marsh-trophy-builds-on-a-racist-legacy-tainting-the-awards-meaning-154322">wrote a piece about the implications of the award being named in Marsh’s honour and</a> “what it is like to win a sport award named after a notorious racist.”</p>
<p>As Forsyth and other Canadian sport historians like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2013.785750">Bruce Kidd</a> have explained, Marsh’s work for the <em>Toronto Star</em> was often plagued by both overt and implicit racism. </p>
<h2>Lou Marsh’s legacy</h2>
<p>As a sports journalist, Marsh was charged with being the eyes and ears of Canadian sports fans, documenting key events and recreating the performance of emerging athletes. For this reason, his writing about specific athletes <a href="https://learninglink.oup.com/access/morrow-4e">altered the ways those athletes have been memorialized today</a>. </p>
<p>Marsh’s power to shape narratives both informed his contemporary readers and distorted our views of <a href="https://canadianscholars.ca/book/race-and-sport-in-canada/">Canada’s sporting past</a>.</p>
<p>When Marsh employed racial epithets or derogatory stereotypes in his reporting, he did so as a tastemaker in a position of power. Marsh’s blind spot regarding athletes of colour, exemplified through his <a href="https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/first-nations-inuit-metis/who-do-you-think-i-am-a-story-of-tom-longboat">relentless derision of his supposed “friend” Tom Longboat</a>, reveals him to be a figure of questionable journalistic integrity. </p>
<p>Moreover, his specific derogation of athletes themselves is even more troubling for his long-time association with Canada’s “Athlete of the Year.” We understand more now, but it is not merely a matter of looking at Lou Marsh with 21st century eyes: it involves reviewing his work from the perspective of the athletes he knowingly harmed through his writing.</p>
<h2>Awards are inherently political</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A black and white photo of a man in vintage NHL referee uniform" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488376/original/file-20221005-12-ym59a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488376/original/file-20221005-12-ym59a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488376/original/file-20221005-12-ym59a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488376/original/file-20221005-12-ym59a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488376/original/file-20221005-12-ym59a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1209&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488376/original/file-20221005-12-ym59a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1209&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488376/original/file-20221005-12-ym59a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1209&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lou Marsh was a Canadian athlete, referee and sports journalist who worked at the <em>Toronto Star</em> for 43 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Alexandra Studio/Toronto Star archives)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>The Star</em> is <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/opinion/2022/09/26/the-lou-marsh-trophy-is-getting-a-new-name-with-help-from-star-readers.html">taking submissions from the public on a new name</a> for the trophy. A committee will choose a replacement before this year’s award is handed out in December. No doubt there will be resistance by some individuals to the name change, likely more from a place of preservation than a feeling of genuine loss regarding Marsh himself. </p>
<p>But the award is not a page in a history book; it is an evergreen celebration of Marsh himself, perhaps more than the individual who receives it.</p>
<p>Even in cases where awards are created in good faith, the physical and cultural space they occupy <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Oscar%C2%AE-Fever-History-Politics-Academy/dp/082641284X">makes these awards an inherently political issue</a>. That allocation comes at a high cost, which involves near-constant scrutiny and critical interrogation. </p>
<p>As such, these memorial awards are intended to reflect the needs and interests of the present population, rather than simply one individual from the past. </p>
<p>American historian <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/preserving-memory/9780231124072">Edward Linenthal argues that</a> “our choices about who gets remembered, what gets remembered, where acts of remembrance take place, and how we express the significance of remembrance is as much — or more — about the future than the past.” </p>
<p>Even if Marsh represents an important component of the <em>Toronto Star’s</em> past, he cannot and should not dictate their future depiction of athletes. Anything that in any way detracts, or even distracts, from the honoured athlete and their achievement should be eliminated.</p>
<h2>More than a name change</h2>
<p>There is no question that changing the name of the award is an important acknowledgement of the untold damage that has been done through Marsh’s pernicious treatment of many Canadian athletes. </p>
<p>But if the work ends there, then changing the award’s name risks being dismissed as a knee-jerk response to public outcry, rather than an indication of genuine reflection on past inequities and a commitment to a new approach. </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/janice_ubc/status/1574514976592642049?s=20&t=rXyWor7aprtZPNm8hsSSVg">In a tweet thread responding to the announcement of the name change</a>, Forsyth wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The Star can do more than change the name. It can address its legacy of teaching Canadians that it’s okay to treat athletes like chattel, that athletes should shut up and do their job, that they need to put up with the abuse they experience. That’s the legacy we’re dealing with.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Although the name change is a necessary first step, until we properly understand the damage done through Marsh’s journalistic outputs on sporting history and their persisting influence on contemporary Canadian culture, we will still feel the immense weight of this dark legacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191831/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Taylor McKee receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>While changing the name of the Lou Marsh Trophy is a necessary first step, the weight of Marsh’s legacy will be felt until we fully understand the damage done by his history of sports journalism.Taylor McKee, Assistant Professor, Sport Management, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1885632022-08-28T12:33:36Z2022-08-28T12:33:36ZFostering a fear-based environment: Coach behaviour needs to change in high-performance sport<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480896/original/file-20220824-20-zxov9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4115%2C2747&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Athlete stories should prompt a shift in coach behaviour that encourages clarity and resets expectations and boundaries. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/fostering-a-fear-based-environment--coach-behaviour-needs-to-change-in-high-performance-sport" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Sport organizations have repeatedly come under fire with frequent <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/gymnastics/gymnastics-letter-freeze-funding-1.6527343">allegations of toxic culture</a>. With each news article, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2022/06/11/too-many-elite-athletes-struggle-in-a-toxic-culture-its-time-to-end-that.html?rf">comes a push to change the culture of sport</a>, yet culture change is <a href="https://sirc.ca/blog/next-steps-in-the-safe-sport-journey/">difficult and ripe with push back</a>. </p>
<p>This leaves sport practitioners with the question, where do we start? Our answer: The coach. </p>
<p>Several <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-21-2022-1.6495709/lives-ruined-by-abuse-in-sports-made-worse-by-fear-of-retaliation-athletes-say-1.6498995">sport organizations</a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/rowing/rowing-canada-review-culture-2022-1.6364990">have faced criticism about</a> <a href="https://www.tsn.ca/proposed-class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-gymnastics-canada-provincial-federations-1.1798189">coaching practices</a>, and this was highlighted by athletes who shared their stories with us. </p>
<p>As part of a larger project that aims to inform safer high-performance sport culture, we spoke with 28 Canadian high performance athletes who are (or were) on a path to podium results at the highest level of their sport. </p>
<p>In response to an open question about when they feel unsafe in their sport, above all else these athletes discussed coaches at length, providing a range of examples of unsafe behaviours and practices that epitomize a culture that needs to be changed.</p>
<h2>Overstepping boundaries</h2>
<p>Athletes said they feel unsafe when coaches overstep boundaries that blur the lines between an acceptable coach-athlete relationship. </p>
<p>Examples include coaches getting involved in and even manipulating athletes’ personal lifestyle decisions like food choices, how they spend personal time and their social lives. </p>
<p>Some coaches completely cross the line. One athlete told us their coach goes “beyond … the lines of your performance and more so into your actual life.” Another told us: “A lot of it starts with comments, and like closeness. Those are the two things that, you know, make people feel like ‘OK, I don’t want to be here, you’re getting too close.’”</p>
<p>Athletes feel threatened and vulnerable in these circumstances when coaches try to use their position of authority to influence areas of these athletes’ lives where they should have autonomy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman stands on a track in a sports bra, you can see the muscles in her back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480899/original/file-20220824-20-wd1n91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480899/original/file-20220824-20-wd1n91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480899/original/file-20220824-20-wd1n91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480899/original/file-20220824-20-wd1n91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480899/original/file-20220824-20-wd1n91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480899/original/file-20220824-20-wd1n91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480899/original/file-20220824-20-wd1n91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Athletes said they feel physically and emotionally unsafe when their coach is overly aggressive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Athletes also described feeling intimidated and fearful of their coach as the powerful gatekeeper of resources like information, opportunities and financial support. </p>
<p>Many athletes said it feels like their coaches have “extreme power,” with little or no accountability to anyone else. One athlete described it as a “fear-based environment where you’re so afraid of saying something wrong or even asking simple questions… [because] they have the power to obviously, you know, remove funding.”</p>
<h2>Overly aggressive</h2>
<p>Not surprisingly, athletes said they feel physically and emotionally unsafe when their coach is overly aggressive. They gave examples of aggressive language and its delivery — from being screamed at, to having their coach in their face yelling — and how they equated it to belittling, having their character attacked and confidence broken. </p>
<p>One athlete described having to “tiptoe around” to avoid such behaviour from their coach. Several athletes described how it is often “something that’s no longer constructive” and moves beyond a developmental tactic to a behaviour that is meant to show power or dominance.</p>
<p>Athletes also shared how they feel vulnerable and at risk when they believe their coach is uninformed, outdated and unaware of contemporary (safe) practices. This is made worse when coaches seem to believe that “no one knows better than them” and “they won’t listen to other people.” </p>
<p>Athletes’ sense of vulnerability is extended when uninformed coaches overstep personal boundaries.</p>
<h2>Isolation and exclusion</h2>
<p>The athletes we spoke with talked about feeling excluded and isolated due to very little interaction with their coach, or having their coach show favouritism to another athlete. </p>
<p>They explained that being left out or overlooked makes them feel unseen and puts them at risk of falling behind. One athlete told us that their coach would never speak to them or look them in the eye. Here too, athletes feel intimidated and powerless to engage.</p>
<p>These coach behaviours and practices are some of the accepted, or at least tolerated ways of doing things in high performance sport. They also highlight fundamental issues that may not be considered or addressed amidst the focus on high profile cases of maltreatment. </p>
<p>These behaviours should not just be “the way things are.” They contribute to a toxic environment that leaves athletes feeling vulnerable, fearful, intimidated, devalued and mistrusting of those who have such an important influence on their development and success.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A coach gives a talk in the locker room to a group of athletes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480901/original/file-20220824-8899-sdo0s6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480901/original/file-20220824-8899-sdo0s6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480901/original/file-20220824-8899-sdo0s6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480901/original/file-20220824-8899-sdo0s6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480901/original/file-20220824-8899-sdo0s6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480901/original/file-20220824-8899-sdo0s6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480901/original/file-20220824-8899-sdo0s6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many athletes described feeling intimidated by and fearful of their coach.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Steps forward</h2>
<p>While several initiatives in the Canadian sport system are directed to coaches, they mainly include broad principles and a pledge that organizations and coaches commit to following the <a href="https://coach.ca/responsible-coaching-movement">Responsible Coaching Movement</a>. </p>
<p>There is also a <a href="https://safesport.coach.ca/">Safesport</a> Training Module hosted by the Coaching Association of Canada, although it is not specifically for coaches. </p>
<p>While these resources are an excellent foundation for the safe sport movement, what we have been hearing about the coaches’ role in fostering an unsafe high performance sport culture demands direct attention.</p>
<p>The athletes’ stories should prompt a shift in coach behaviour that starts with clarity, and likely a reset of expectations and boundaries. It must also include accountability for coach behaviour and practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Doherty receives funding from SSHRC for this project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric MacIntosh receives funding from SSHRC for this project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannon Kerwin receives funding from SSHRC for this project.</span></em></p>Sport organizations have repeatedly come under fire with frequent allegations of toxic culture. This leaves sport practitioners with the question, where do we start? Our answer: The coach.Alison Doherty, Professor of Sport Management, Western UniversityEric MacIntosh, Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Human Kinetics, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaShannon Kerwin, Associate Professor in Sport Management, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877512022-07-28T17:50:34Z2022-07-28T17:50:34ZFixing the problems at Hockey Canada will be difficult without leadership changes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476504/original/file-20220728-26986-ljnf02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2933%2C1556&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parliamentary hearings into Hockey Canada's handling of sexual assault allegations against the 2018 world junior team left more questions than answers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/fixing-the-problems-at-hockey-canada-will-be-difficult-without-leadership-changes" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Two gruelling days of <a href="https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/377355/Hockey-Canada-has-paid-7-6-million-in-sex-abuse-settlements-since-1989">parliamentary hearings into Hockey Canada’s sexual assault scandals</a> have revealed deep troubles with the organization’s governance, leadership and culture.</p>
<p>Most troubling was how Hockey Canada and Canadian Hockey League officials who appeared before the committee chose to respond to questioning from members of Parliament. Their recalcitrant attitudes suggest that change under the current leadership will be impossible. </p>
<p>The House of Commons <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/CHPC/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=11764784">committee on Canadian Heritage</a> was looking into Hockey Canada’s handling of allegations of the group sexual assault of a woman by members of the 2018 men’s world junior team at a celebration event in London, Ont., held months after the tournament.</p>
<p>A number of sports experts from across the country sent <a href="https://www.hockeyabuseopenletter.com/">an open letter</a> to the parliamentary committee expressing their concerns that “sexual violence and misogyny are deeply rooted problems in men’s ice hockey.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, at the end of two days of hearings, there are far more questions regarding Canadian hockey culture than answers.</p>
<h2>History of sexual assault allegations</h2>
<p>The hearings included, among a number of chilling disclosures, information that Hockey Canada <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/hockey-canada-has-paid-7-6m-in-sex-abuse-settlements-since-1989-1.6003729">has paid $7.6 million in sexual assault settlements since 1989</a> and that Sport Canada, the government agency that develops federal sport policy, <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/juniors/article/what-we-learned-from-day-1-of-the-hockey-canada-hearings/">was informed of the 2018 allegations and failed to act</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men are sitting at a table with name tags in front of them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476541/original/file-20220728-32331-5ht3x6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476541/original/file-20220728-32331-5ht3x6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476541/original/file-20220728-32331-5ht3x6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476541/original/file-20220728-32331-5ht3x6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476541/original/file-20220728-32331-5ht3x6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476541/original/file-20220728-32331-5ht3x6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476541/original/file-20220728-32331-5ht3x6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scott Smith, president of Hockey Canada, and Brian Cairo, the organization’s chief financial officer, were major witnesses at the parliamentary committee looking into how Hockey Canada handled allegations of sexual assault and a subsequent lawsuit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the most dramatic moment on the last day of hearings, Hockey Canada president and chief executive officer Scott Smith <a href="https://www.tsn.ca/talent/embattled-hockey-canada-president-resists-calls-to-step-down-1.1830031">staunchly refused to step down</a>.</p>
<p>While the MPs were looking into the alleged 2018 assault, police and Hockey Canada announced last week they were re-opening an investigation into another <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/canada-2003-world-hockey-junior-team-accused-sexual-assault-1.6529076">alleged group sexual assault by members of the 2003 world junior team</a>.</p>
<p>It’s overwhelmingly apparent the alleged actions perpetrated by members of the 2018 and 2003 world junior teams should not be presented as singular, unique and uncommon violations of policies. Rather, <a href="https://twitter.com/IanKennedyCK/status/1550529788254687233">these actions, viewed in a context of sexual violence dating back decades,</a> demonstrate a pattern of entrenched behaviour within hockey culture. </p>
<p>The players that make up Canada’s world junior squad come from teams in the Canadian Hockey League, which governs the top junior leagues across the country.</p>
<h2>Institutionalized harm</h2>
<p>Canadian Hockey League leaders who testified, including president Dan MacKenzie and the heads of the major junior leagues in Western Canada, Ontario and Québec, denied that a culture of hazing existed in their organizations — despite numerous high-profile hazing cases, including <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/2022/07/27/carcillo-says-testimony-didnt-acknowledge-culture-of-hazing-abuse-in-chl.html">a statement of claim filed by Daniel Carcillo</a> with the Ontario Superior Court in 2020 alleging abuse and hazing in a class-action lawsuit.</p>
<p>During the second day of the hearings, Hockey Canada chief financial officer Brian Cairo explained that $6.8 million of the $7.6 million in sexual assault settlements were related to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/graham-james-sex-assault-parole-theo-fleury-sheldon-kennedy-1.3762624">the notorious case of Graham James</a>, a former Western Hockey League coach and convicted sexual predator whose crimes stretch from 1984 to 1995.</p>
<p>Cairo may have been trying to give the impression that most of Hockey Canada’s settlement money went to an isolated incident decades in the past. But that’s yet another example of Hockey Canada’s attempt to minimize the perceived problems at the heart of Canadian hockey culture.</p>
<p>Cairo later testified that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/hockey-canada-house-of-commons-committee-1.6533439">that Hockey Canada has paid out 12 additional insured sexual misconduct claims that totalled $1.2 million.</a> </p>
<p>The James case clearly did not cause any substantial change to Hockey Canada’s operating model. The new scandals involving world junior teams reveal once again that tragic events consistently occur within a system governed by an organization that is simultaneously unable to protect their own athletes from abuse by coaches and also has serious problems with the conduct of its athletes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Players and coaches are grouped together on the ice with a sign that says 2018 champions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476543/original/file-20220728-28499-kj5r0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476543/original/file-20220728-28499-kj5r0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476543/original/file-20220728-28499-kj5r0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476543/original/file-20220728-28499-kj5r0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476543/original/file-20220728-28499-kj5r0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476543/original/file-20220728-28499-kj5r0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476543/original/file-20220728-28499-kj5r0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Canadian team pose after winning the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championship in January 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Leaders refuse to take accountability</h2>
<p>Real harm can come from powerful institutions acting permissively or insubstantially in the face of abuse.</p>
<p>In 2016, the International Olympic Committee issued a “<a href="https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/50/17/1019">consensus statement</a>” that should serve as a warning for Hockey Canada officials. It noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Passive attitudes/non-intervention, denial or silence by people in positions of power in sport (particularly bystanders) and lack of formal accountability all create the impression for victims that such behaviours are legally and socially acceptable, and that those in sport are powerless to speak out against them; this bystander effect can compound the initial psychological trauma.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hockey Canada’s <a href="https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/corporate/about/mandate-mission">mission statement</a> is: “Lead, Develop and Promote Positive Hockey Experiences.”</p>
<p>The parliamentary hearings revealed that Hockey Canada has fallen short of its stated function in the way its leaders have handled sexual violence perpetrated by and against Hockey Canada players. </p>
<p>As stewards of Canada’s game, they have flagrantly abused the responsibilities associated with this role. Consequently, it is long past time to examine who is granted the privilege of carrying out this important mission.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187751/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Taylor McKee receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>Hockey Canada has fallen short of its mission to ‘Lead, Develop and Promote Positive Hockey Experiences’ in its handling of sexual violence perpetrated by and against Hockey Canada players.Taylor McKee, Assistant Professor, Sport Management, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1798222022-04-17T12:29:10Z2022-04-17T12:29:10ZWinning well, but not at all costs: Why Canada urgently needs a new vision for sport<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458018/original/file-20220413-27-zbk985.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4493%2C2950&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We need a positive vision for sport in Canada — something to fight for, not just fight against. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Athletes from almost every national sport organization in Canada are <a href="https://torontosun.com/sports/safe-sport-crisis-shows-canadian-sport-system-needs-maintenance-if-not-total-overhaul">rising up in hurt and anger</a> to denounce toxic cultures of abuse, negligence and discrimination. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/athletics-canada-david-bedford-twitter-sexually-suggestive-1.6317922">Athletics</a>, <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/artistic-swimmers-file-lawsuit-against-canadian-governing-body-for-abuse-allegations-1.5340087">artistic swimming</a>, <a href="https://bettergolfzone.com/canadian-gymnasts-allege-abuse-neglect-and-discrimination-within-the-sport/">gymnastics</a>, <a href="https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/toxic-culture-rugby-canada">rugby</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/bobsleigh-canada-skeleton-athlete-safety-racial-abuse-1.6383602">bobsled</a>, <a href="https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/another-former-player-describes-abuse-at-the-hands-of-mike-babcock">hockey</a>, <a href="https://theprovince.com/sports/soccer/mls/vancouver-whitecaps/whitecaps-rocked-by-latest-sexual-misconduct-allegation-place-members-of-executive-on-leave">soccer</a> and <a href="https://www.martlet.ca/barney-williams-uvic-investigation-2020/">rowing</a> are banding together to demand a respectful, healthy and inclusive sport system for all. Athletes from all over the country are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/uoft-scholars-ask-sport-minister-review-own-the-podium-1.6412584">calling on sport leaders</a> to make a systemic change. </p>
<p>While I am encouraged that Canada’s sport minister, Pascale St-Onge, is <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/canada-sport-minister-vows-to-change-toxic-sport-culture-1.6404419">mandating that sporting organizations</a> follow the new <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/canada-sport-minister-vows-to-change-toxic-sport-culture-1.6404419">independent third-party auditing process</a> and explore better oversight frameworks, it’s not enough. As an athlete and sport researcher, I believe we need to move beyond talks, round tables and task forces, toward a positive vision for sport in Canada; something to fight for, not just fight against. </p>
<h2>The sport-centric model</h2>
<p>When I was rowing for Canada in the 1980s and ‘90s, sport faced a similar crisis in the form of doping. At the 1988 Olympics, women’s rowing saw the <a href="https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/seoul-1988/results/rowing">Eastern Bloc countries win all but two</a> of the 18 medals on offer — a virtual clean sweep of the medals, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2005/nov/01/athletics.gdnsport3">though hardly “clean.”</a> </p>
<p>After several sixth and seventh place finishes, we knew we would need to shift our mindset in order to compete in this new performance-enhanced arena. We began by placing sport at the centre of our shared purpose: performance not podiums; <a href="https://doi.org/10.18848/2152-7857/CGP/v12i02/81-104">a gold medal time-standard, not a gold medal</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Two women in red and white sports uniforms smiling and wearing gold medals" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457536/original/file-20220411-18-xhls3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457536/original/file-20220411-18-xhls3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457536/original/file-20220411-18-xhls3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457536/original/file-20220411-18-xhls3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457536/original/file-20220411-18-xhls3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457536/original/file-20220411-18-xhls3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457536/original/file-20220411-18-xhls3c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marnie McBean (left) and Kathleen Heddle show their gold medals in the coxless pairs rowing competition at the 1992 Olympic Games in Spain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ron Poling</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The goal of rowing is not to have greater muscle mass, size or strength than your competitor, but greater speed. Once optimal speed became our shared purpose, we formed a true partnership with our coaches, administrators, sport science practitioners and competitors. We were all seen as equals — the key to a <a href="https://leadersinsport.com/performance/psychological-safety-explained/">psychologically safe environment</a> where all are free to be, contribute, learn and challenge one another.</p>
<p>With partnership came a more global perspective of sport. Speed in rowing can only be achieved by harnessing synchrony, power, rhythm, balance and diversity. Optimal speed, like any optimal achievement, is the pursuit of beauty and excellence for the greater good of humanity and the world. </p>
<p>With human and social development at our centre, we had to be caring of ourselves and one another, open to innovation, inclusive of newcomers with potential, aligned in our focus, trusting in our process and committed to our relationships, our community and our sport. </p>
<p>We went on to win <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowing_at_the_1992_Summer_Olympics">multiple gold medals at the 1992 Olympics</a> in a sport still rife with doping. We emerged as <a href="https://olympic.ca/press/marnie-mcbean-ready-to-lead-team-canada-at-tokyo-2020/">leaders</a> in our community and still <a href="https://www.vcrc.bc.ca/2019/10/21/victoria-city-rowing-club-athletes-defend-title-at-head-of-the-charles-regatta.php">remain intact as a crew</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Women competitively rowing in a boat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456716/original/file-20220406-9612-cdkdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5040%2C3138&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456716/original/file-20220406-9612-cdkdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456716/original/file-20220406-9612-cdkdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456716/original/file-20220406-9612-cdkdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456716/original/file-20220406-9612-cdkdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456716/original/file-20220406-9612-cdkdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456716/original/file-20220406-9612-cdkdb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Still going strong: Canada competing in the women’s senior master eights during the 2019 Head of the Charles Regatta, the largest two-day regatta in the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.row2k.com/hocr/photo.cfm?action=pf&dir=2019Fall/HOCR/1019R09SrMast8W&start=5&label=Event%209%20-%20Women%27s%20Senior%20Master%20Eights&hi=yes&year=2019">(Row 2K)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.tsn.ca/memories-of-kathleen-heddle-celebrated-as-canada-s-women-s-eight-score-gold-1.1675821">Members of the 1992 team</a> inspired our <a href="https://olympic.ca/2021/12/29/best-of-2021-return-to-gold-medal-glory-for-womens-rowing/">2021 Tokyo gold in the women’s eight</a> to lean on the same core principles: common goals, communication, clarity and respect. This is a blueprint for what sport can be in Canada.</p>
<h2>Sport is the solution</h2>
<p>As an <a href="https://cflnewshub.com/cfl-news/pr-cflpa-academy-partners-with-royal-roads-university-to-offer-sport-leadership-programming/">educator</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_F04p4cdLDlXQ2Zgq07focUzst5HJI78">leadership and communication scholar</a>, I work to identify the organizational mechanisms that ensure quality sport experiences in order to leverage the full benefits of sport for society. I have always found truth in sport.</p>
<p>Our research team, composed of professors and graduate students from Royal Roads University and University of Victoria, has found that sport holds the solution to its own problems. </p>
<p>We propose a <a href="https://doi.org/10.18848/2152-7857/CGP/v12i02/81-104">partnership model for sport</a> in Canada that places “optimal sport experiences” at the centre of decision making, addresses the power imbalance at the root of abuse and <a href="http://integratedfocus.ca/?p=1220">offers a blueprint</a> for cultural and organizational change that shifts the focus from podiums to performances.</p>
<p>Our goal is to return sport to its rightful place in society as a source for <a href="http://integratedfocus.ca/?p=1100">human and societal growth and development</a>. We recommend concrete strategies for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2019.03.001">organizational and procedural change</a>, such as <a href="http://integratedfocus.ca/?p=1139">expanding measures of success</a> to include leadership impact, physical and psychological health and safety, as well as performance outcomes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People putting their hands together in a circle" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457516/original/file-20220411-20-lohae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457516/original/file-20220411-20-lohae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457516/original/file-20220411-20-lohae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457516/original/file-20220411-20-lohae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457516/original/file-20220411-20-lohae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457516/original/file-20220411-20-lohae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/457516/original/file-20220411-20-lohae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sport in Canada is missing the point: the purpose of sport is human and social development, not medals. Sport is a partnership, not a battle, and competition is collaborative, not zero sum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cultural integrity depends on embedding the principles of human and social health and development within all organizational texts, practices and behaviours. Achieving <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2007.03.001">power balance in sport</a> thus relies on transparent information sharing, explicit selection criteria, role clarity and expectations and published accountability frameworks.</p>
<h2>Canadian sport is missing the point</h2>
<p>Sport in Canada is missing the point: the purpose of sport is human and social development, not medals. Sport is a partnership, not a battle, and competition is collaborative, not zero sum. After all, the Latin derivative for competition is <em>competere</em> or strive together.</p>
<p>Sport has the greatest <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2016.11.027">participation and support</a> of any human endeavour in the world and therefore can have the <a href="https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1c4c0af2552242739818ee120ae07e88">greatest impact</a> on human development. Good sport <a href="http://integratedfocus.ca/?p=1139">benefits athletes, sporting organizations and society at large</a>. </p>
<p>A sport-centric model in Canada would make an optimal sport experience our shared purpose, balancing power across our system. From little leagues to beer leagues to professional leagues, when human and social development is the focus of sport, health, joy, community and success are the natural outcomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Jennifer Walinga is a board member with Rowing Canada Aviron and receives research funding from Royal Roads University, SSHRC, and SDRCC</span></em></p>Athletes from multiple NSO’s in Canada are rising up in hurt and anger to denounce toxic cultures and linking arms to demand a respectful, healthy and inclusive sport system for all.Jennifer Walinga, Professor, Communication and Culture, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1811442022-04-12T03:45:19Z2022-04-12T03:45:19ZThe Black Ferns review shows – again – why real change in women’s high performance sport is urgently overdue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457581/original/file-20220412-30661-izr1fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C3329%2C2224&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>New Zealand Rugby’s just released report into the <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018837811/nz-rugby-releases-report-into-culture-in-black-ferns">culture of the Black Ferns</a> national women’s team is damning, but sadly all too familiar. </p>
<p>Like a number of previous investigations into elite sporting codes – including football, cycling, rowing and gymnastics – it reveals abuses of power and inadequate systems that are failing sportswomen. Despite <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-launches-strategy-women-and-girls-sport-and-active-recreation">significant investment</a> in women’s sport over recent years, its rapid <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/The-Professionalisation-of-Women%C3%AF%C2%BF%C2%BDs-SportThe-Professionalisation-of-Women%E2%80%99s-Sport/?k=9781800431973">professionalisation</a> is exposing problems in systems designed by and for men.</p>
<p>Rugby may be New Zealand’s national game, but it is the women’s team that has brought home more World Cup titles. Historically <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09523367.2017.1329201?src=recsys">under-funded and under-valued</a>, the women’s game (both 15- and 7-aside) has become a source of national <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09523367.2017.1330263?casa_token=kPb2VFCkxp8AAAAA%3AucBirDVqaV5j_weZ7B0LKBEpXu1fAcFBjcVXKOeb-16OPdv3sbyes2nUppViG1ECvCkvnKyLwN3ION8">pride and mana</a> with a <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ssj/37/2/article-p73.xml">strong player culture</a>. </p>
<p>Until very recently, the Black Ferns have dominated the international game. But the team’s disappointing end-of-year European tour did not go to plan. Back home and stuck in quarantine with no support, Black Fern Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/rugby-black-ferns-player-alleges-coaching-comments-led-to-mental-breakdown/Q7ATQ4RH5NUMPIIP4NIY4IQ5TE/">used social media</a> to express her concerns about the coaching culture:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My confidence and self esteem was so low that it made me play like I was walking on egg shells and was constantly too scared to express myself […] I let the words over the years get to me, the words became the flesh.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Instagram post prompted internal and external demands for an inquiry, with New Zealand Rugby commissioning the “cultural and environmental review” that hit this week like a hard tackle.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1513371783897882624"}"></div></p>
<h2>Stuck in the past</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nzrugby.co.nz/assets/Black-Ferns-review-2022.pdf">The report</a> made 26 recommendations and identified seven key themes, including: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>a strong culture among Black Ferns players that isn’t aligned with or supported by management structures</p></li>
<li><p>significant communication issues between coaches, managers and players</p></li>
<li><p>gaps in athlete health and well-being support</p></li>
<li><p>and that NZ Rugby has not sufficiently supported women’s high performance rugby. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The findings are familiar and mirror the six goals outlined in New Zealand Rugby’s 2017 <a href="https://www.nzrugby.co.nz/assets/NZR-RRR-Summary-Document.pdf">“Respect and Responsibility” report</a>, and bears striking similarities with recent similar reviews in <a href="https://www.irishrugby.ie/2022/03/04/irfu-receives-rugby-world-cup-qualifier-independent-review/">Ireland</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/rugby/rugby-canada-names-kevin-rouet-head-coach-women-rugby-world-cup-1.6395105">Canada</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/465080/black-ferns-coach-keeps-job-despite-scathing-review">immediate question</a> has been why Black Ferns coach Glenn Moore was being kept on until this year’s Rugby World Cup. As <a href="https://www.wira.org.nz/">Women in Rugby Aotearoa</a> chair <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018837822/women-in-rugby-chair-surprised-black-ferns-coach-remaining">Traci Houpapa</a> said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It does send a message to say they are retaining the status quo […] New Zealand rugby needs to think about what [message] that sends to the players and to the rugby community.</p>
<p>The report tells us in many ways what we already knew, that these are long-time, long-term systemic issues that have been affecting and impacting women who want to play rugby in Aotearoa. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1513692456621068289"}"></div></p>
<h2>Toxic sporting cultures</h2>
<p>While it is important to focus on the specifics of the Black Ferns review, it is also necessary to look at the broader patterns emerging in light of the previous reviews of other sports.</p>
<p>At least 11 sports bodies, including <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/107843207/two-years-of-dysfunctional-high-performance-culture-at-cycling-nz-with-excessive-drinking-and-bullying">Cycling New Zealand</a>, <a href="https://www.gymnastsforchange.com/blogs/gymnastics-new-zealand-chief-abuse-normalised">Gymnastics New Zealand</a>, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/122604637/canoe-racing-nz-facing-athlete-welfare-crisis-as-two-thirds-of-elite-womens-team-quit">Canoe Racing New Zealand</a>, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/104922340/huge-staff-turnover-amid-nz-footballs-toxic-culture-under-andy-martin">NZ Football</a> and <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/383323/black-sticks-had-serious-concerns-about-team-environment">Hockey New Zealand</a>, have come under scrutiny for toxic cultures. </p>
<p>Investigations and athlete testimonies have revealed the damage done through abuse, neglect and psychological harm. The “win at all costs” mentality has come at a huge price, causing significant <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17430437.2022.2033223?casa_token=xUIYFk1XJyoAAAAA%3AJr7RCfukQ_xEJdac3KEn7BpIf27TrDAVJxk-rZJJh1Lkxxgw6lKsYp_JoRpbRxJfnDtyPHbFpqJPbZE">harm</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16138171.2021.1878436?casa_token=gzod0sDgXEoAAAAA%3AkK0QcVnLdZFlmky990u87O_frmUAYumiXUZgOE15UQ3eL0Tc1YBdQ6HBbKQG6hb3iaYYd7tFkqt6MYI">trauma</a> for many athletes.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/toxic-sport-cultures-are-damaging-female-athletes-health-but-we-can-do-better-128376">Toxic sport cultures are damaging female athletes' health, but we can do better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While each review was commissioned to address a specific incident, in most cases they have highlighted systemic problems. These stem from gender inequity and organisational failings such as bullying and <a href="https://sportnz.org.nz/about/news-and-media/media-centre/sport-nz-releases-report-on-athletes-rights-and-welfare/">lack of player welfare</a> – all rampant in <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Athlete-Welfare/Lang/p/book/9780367193256">global elite sport</a>.</p>
<p>Despite High Performance Sport New Zealand launching a new <a href="https://hpsnz.org.nz/about-us/news-media/high-performance-sport-nz-to-invest-273-million-in-new-strategy/#:%7E:text=says%20Michael%20Scott.-,Wellbeing%20%26%20Engagement,monitor%20wellbeing%20in%20NSO%20environments">NZ$273 million strategy</a> prioritising athlete wellbeing, it doesn’t address the distinct <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2021.601420/full">gender dynamics</a> of the problem.</p>
<p>Despite important initiatives to increase <a href="https://sportnz.org.nz/resources/women-in-leadership-programme/">women in leadership roles</a>, sporting cultures that genuinely value and respect women as athletes, leaders, coaches, managers and experts are still some way off in New Zealand. The leadership and management teams in women’s sport don’t represent the gender and cultural diversity on the field, and this is part of the problem.</p>
<h2>Turning words into action</h2>
<p>Supposedly about accountability and change, reviews of sporting culture <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19406940.2021.1877168?casa_token=0p2B2pU_2eUAAAAA%3AseU4L4MCfO6I6sK4ear2v7fsh9J8iKQAnLeJrFoc7fClOcM9wjmWSF-LSz_NamwrRRzqtzDAFtGY_a4">rarely translate into action</a> by national sporting bodies.</p>
<p>Small amendments might be made – hiring a human resources manager, providing unconscious bias training or <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/300552643/wayne-smith-to-join-black-ferns-coaching-team-as-culture-review-looms?rm=a">adding a high-profile coach</a> – but <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003034445-8/symbolic-equality-aotearoa-new-zealand-sports-organisations-alida-shanks-sarah-leberman-sally-shaw-geoff-watson">the hard work of real cultural change tends to be avoided</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-price-of-gold-what-high-performance-sport-in-nz-must-learn-from-the-olivia-podmore-tragedy-166020">The price of gold — what high-performance sport in NZ must learn from the Olivia Podmore tragedy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>None of the reviews attach deadlines to their recommendations and very rarely are the recommended change processes subjected to systematic monitoring and evaluation processes. </p>
<p>In the case of Cycling NZ, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/300411677/highprofile-women-dominate-cycling-new-zealand-independent-inquiry-panel">a second review</a> was necessary to identify why changes had not occurred, at huge cost to athlete health and well-being.</p>
<p>The self-regulating nature of sport organisations and the associated “one step forward, two steps back” <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/9/5/68">reform process</a> suggest more accountability is required from an elite sports model that has for too long been designed by and for men. </p>
<p>If sports organisations are serious about supporting women, on and off the field, they need to invest in programmes and structures designed by and for women’s sport. This is no longer a bold, brave move; it is a long-overdue and urgently needed solution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Will Rugby New Zealand’s report into culture within the Black Ferns finally be the tipping point for change – to put women at the heart of their own sports organisations?Holly Thorpe, Professor in Sociology of Sport and Physical Culture, University of WaikatoAlida Shanks, PhD candidate in equity and belonging in sports organisations, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1804862022-04-03T12:14:33Z2022-04-03T12:14:33ZAs a former elite gymnast, I know sport needs a cultural shift to ensure athlete safety<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455856/original/file-20220401-25-bwli2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C15%2C5225%2C3465&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Team Canada at the Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany in 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/as-a-former-elite-gymnast--i-know-sport-needs-a-cultural-shift-to-ensure-athlete-safety" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>There has been a recent outpouring of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/olympian-jennifer-heil-says-changes-still-needed-canada-safe-sport-program-1.6101870">calls to make sport safer</a>. Athletes are <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2022/03/22/ottawa-orders-financial-audit-into-bobsleigh-canada-skeleton-after-open-letter-detailing-toxic-culture.html">writing testimonials and letters</a> across many sports over allegations of abuse, maltreatment and harm. </p>
<p>The most recent development comes from the gymnastics world where <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/gymnastics/canadian-gymnasts-calling-for-investigation-into-abusive-practices-toxic-culture-under-gymcan-1.6399721">70 former gymnasts</a> penned a letter to Sport Canada calling for an end to the toxic culture in that sport. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-young-athletes-from-abusive-coaches-lets-get-it-right-111950">Protecting young athletes from abusive coaches – let's get it right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While gymnastics <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/summer/gymnastics/larry-nassar-sex-abuse-victims-settlement-usa-gymnastics-1.6283763">has been in the news</a> for years, these recent developments seemed to <a href="https://www.sportsnet.ca/more/article/sport-minister-holds-emergency-roundtable-to-address-safe-sport-crisis-in-canada/">strike a chord across Canadian sport</a>. The calls for making sport a safer, more inclusive and welcoming space are not new, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2022/03/25/canadas-sport-system-may-have-to-change-for-athletes-to-feel-safe.html">but they seem to be getting louder</a> with too little action being taken by the sport system. </p>
<p>As a sports scholar, I find myself in an interesting position. My early foray into research drew upon my love of gymnastics. My personal experience as an athlete was exceptional — I grew up competing at an elite level, leading to university involvement. I had strong, caring coaches who always put my health and safety first. But when I was competing, I wasn’t naïve to the cultural problems that existed within the sport and would often see fellow competitors over-trained and living in fear. </p>
<h2>Athletes need protection</h2>
<p>After stepping away from competition, I got involved as a coach and a judge. Around the same time, I was completing my master’s degree. It was logical for me to focus my research on something I was passionate about, and my advisor was a critical sport scholar so I examined <a href="https://www.academia.edu/467620/Critical_Policy_Analysis_for_Marginalised_Stakeholder_Groups_A_Case_Study_of_Youth_in_Canadian_Federal_Sport_Policy">youth protection policy</a> in sport, using a case of Gymnastics Canada. </p>
<p>I discovered the sport system was doing little to ensure young athletes received the necessary rights and protections from harm. At that time, I argued that sport needed to protect young elite athletes using mechanisms that had been adopted elsewhere, such as those for <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/child-performers">young actors</a>. </p>
<p>My research challenged my thinking about a sport that was my passion. I presented my research to Sport Canada and Gymnastics Canada, but nothing ever came of it. My work was dismissed. </p>
<p>The process was emotionally taxing, so I turned to other academic pursuits and continued my involvement in coaching, becoming a national level gymnastics judge. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="a woman stands in a judge's uniform" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455857/original/file-20220401-53031-qrl16.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455857/original/file-20220401-53031-qrl16.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455857/original/file-20220401-53031-qrl16.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455857/original/file-20220401-53031-qrl16.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455857/original/file-20220401-53031-qrl16.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1339&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455857/original/file-20220401-53031-qrl16.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455857/original/file-20220401-53031-qrl16.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1339&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laura Misener judging at Canadian Gymnastics Championships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Laura Misener)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During my 14 years as a gymnastics judge, I witnessed many disturbing things about the sport. I was often torn between my impartial role as a judge, and my feeling of moral responsibility to support the well-being of young athletes in the sport. </p>
<p>I felt <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/28/canadian-gymnasts-call-for-investigation-into-sports-toxic-culture">complicit in the toxic sport culture</a> and started to try and push for change — I even sent letters to governing bodies outlining concerns about the behaviours of coaches toward young athletes. Despite the emergence of <a href="http://www.gymcan.org/programs/safe-sport/overview">safe sport guidelines</a>, the toxic culture remained. </p>
<p>I felt powerless and eventually left sport because I couldn’t bear witness to an institution that celebrates pushing youth to their limits and coaching behaviours that reinforce dominance, often in the form of adult men wielding power over <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/019372397021002003">young girls</a>. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/01/188295/gymnastics-abuse-toxic-culture-sports-psychology">mounting unrest in the sport community grows</a>, I look back and feel guilty that I didn’t speak out more, that I didn’t work harder to have my voice heard, that I didn’t do more. </p>
<p>But what I now realize is that the institutional structures in sport, particularly in gymnastics, where young girls are the stars, silence dissenting voices. Obedience, tolerance and compliance are what is expected in this culture — which is why it has taken so long for these issues to come to light. </p>
<h2>An athlete-centred approach</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Feet are seen pointed in the air with judges sitting in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455866/original/file-20220401-19520-52r1e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455866/original/file-20220401-19520-52r1e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455866/original/file-20220401-19520-52r1e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455866/original/file-20220401-19520-52r1e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455866/original/file-20220401-19520-52r1e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455866/original/file-20220401-19520-52r1e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455866/original/file-20220401-19520-52r1e7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Canadian competes in the the women’s trampoline gymnastics qualifier at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ashley Landis)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All sport organizations are now required to have <a href="https://athletics.ca/safesport/">safe sport policies</a>, but as scholars have noted there remains a gap between the ideological realm of safe sport and <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-must-challenge-the-culture-of-silence-about-child-sexual-abuse-in-football-69377">a culture of silencing</a>. The policies often do little to support athletes suffering from sport’s toxic culture — or change that culture. </p>
<p>As a sports scholar, I am now in a position of power and have the privilege and opportunity to support change. Moving towards a more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2008.10483583">athlete-centred approach</a> to sport is one step in the right direction. But our funding models are fundamentally about medals and overall success, not on how well a sport performs in getting people moving or how culturally safe the sport actually is. </p>
<p>Safe sport policies and accountability are a start, but they are far from a much-needed cultural shift.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180486/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Misener does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Moving towards an athlete-centred approach to sport is one step in the right directionLaura Misener, Professor & Director, School of Kinesiology, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1651422021-07-29T12:16:38Z2021-07-29T12:16:38ZThe politics of the Olympics: How a counter-movement in 1963 changed the Games forever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413573/original/file-20210728-13-izw15r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2384%2C1349&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo banned all athletes who took part in a counter-competition a year earlier called the Games of the New Emerging Forces, which were dubbed the left-wing Olympics </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-politics-of-the-olympics--how-a-counter-movement-in-1963-changed-the-games-forever" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The Olympic Charter states one of the fundamental principles of Olympism is that “<a href="https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf?_ga=2.207253267.1863595436.1627389884-1889120417.1624282455">sports organizations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality</a>.” In reality, the Olympics and politics are inseparable — and a movement in Asia almost 60 years ago has had a lasting impact on how the Olympics have become heavily politicized. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, some 36 countries embraced a new counter-Olympics: <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26549192">GANEFO, the Games of the New Emerging Forces</a>. GANEFO formed to challenge the International Olympic Committee, “a tool of the imperialists and colonialists,” in the words of then Indonesian president Sukarno. After GANEFO, the IOC was forced to accept that sports were often political. There was no going back. </p>
<p>GANEFO presented the IOC with an unprecedented challenge. “Sports cannot be separated from politics,” Sukarno declared. <a href="https://library.olympics.com/Default/doc/SYRACUSE/40898/the-olympic-movement-s-response-to-the-challenge-of-emerging-nationalism-in-sport-an-historical-reco?_lg=en-GB">IOC President Avery Brundage deplored</a> this “challenge to all international amateur sports organizations, which cannot very well be ignored.” There was “such a thing as rules and regulations,” he sniffed. </p>
<p>GANEFO, not the <a href="https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/tokyo-1964">Tokyo Olympics of 1964</a>, was the first major global sporting event held in Asia. While Japan threw a “coming out” party that symbolized its return to the global stage after the Second World War as a rules-abiding country, Indonesia and its GANEFO allies (initially Cambodia, China, Guinea, Indonesia, Iraq, Mali, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Soviet Union) rejected the rules of the game. </p>
<p>GANEFO posed a new way for the world to organize and understand global sports. Its origins lie in the Asian Games, a regional competition held every four years between the Summer Olympics.</p>
<p>Eleven national teams took part in the <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/1951-first-asian-games-in-india/285751">first Asian Games</a> in 1951, with Japan topping the medal count. The host, India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=JWmHDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">identified a very political goal</a>: sports “bring together the youth of many countries and thus help, to some extent, in promoting international friendship and cooperation.” Subsequent Asian Games in Manila and Tokyo embraced Olympian language of friendly competition along with promotion of the host country’s global role. </p>
<p>That changed when the <a href="https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1068999/controversy-ruled-the-last-time-jakarta-hosted-the-asian-games-in-1962">Third Asian Games</a> opened in Indonesia in 1962. Sukarno’s government refused admission to Israel and Taiwan in response to the wishes of the Arab states and China. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A poster showing an arm holding a torch with GAMEFO at the top of the poster." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413403/original/file-20210727-19-1sx10qp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster from the 1963 Games of the New Emerging Forces.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Consequently, the IOC refused to recognize the Games. With athletes and national delegations already in Jakarta, they went ahead regardless. Hometown fans thrilled at the sight of Indonesia finishing second to Japan in the medal count. The IOC expelled Indonesia. </p>
<p>Brundage was furious. “Are governments going to expand the Cold War onto playing fields?” he asked. Sukarno shot back that the IOC was already political, a Cold War organization that excluded China and North Vietnam because both were under Communist rule. </p>
<p>That was when <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26549192">Sukarno called the IOC</a> “a tool of the imperialists and colonialists” that betrayed the founding Olympics ideals and falsely claimed to keep sports and politics separate, while in fact imposing an anti-Communist purity test. So he called for another sporting event, GANEFO, in 1963. </p>
<p>It was, he argued, a way to even the playing field for the athletes and aspirations of Third World nations, and a chance for Indonesia to use sports as a way to build national infrastructure and national swagger. “Boy, what kind of a nation do they think we are?” Sukarno asked of the IOC. “I have repeatedly said that we are not a bean-cake nation!” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cartoon that shows a steam roller chasing members of the IOC." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413406/original/file-20210727-13-zf3azw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Indonesian political cartoon shows the conflict between the organizers of GANEFO and the International Olympic Committee.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Opinions differ on the GANEFO’s success. Most athletes came unofficially, and the event featured almost as many dancers and musicians as athletes. China led the Soviet Union and Indonesia atop the medal table. What GANEFO did achieve, however, was its goal of nation-building through sports. </p>
<p>Indonesia did not prevail in its challenge, but it did not suffer any damage. It gained readmission to the IOC in time for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics — but <a href="http://www.olympedia.org/definitions/57">chose to boycott the Games</a> after the IOC refused to allow athletes who competed at GANEFO to take part in the ’64 Olympics.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the rules of global sports were changing. It would be difficult to pretend that international sports were apolitical after this point. </p>
<p>The IOC <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/18/newsid_3547000/3547872.stm">barred South Africa</a> from the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and sports <a href="https://www.universal-rights.org/by-invitation/from-apartheid-south-africa-to-the-euro-2020-football-championship-how-sport-and-human-rights-make-for-natural-teammates/">boycotts of South Africa</a> played a role in mounting global pressure to end apartheid.</p>
<p>The Olympics, <a href="https://theconversation.com/england-v-south-africa-a-history-of-tough-tackling-and-political-turmoil-126148">rugby and other sports</a> would become arenas of international political confrontation and boycotts on a regular basis, nearly derailing, for instance, the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/sports/montreal-olympics-african-boycott-of-1976-games-changed-the-world">1976 Olympics</a> in Montréal. Indigenous peoples continually point out the troubles with “apolitical” framing of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jsporthistory.46.2.0224">Winter Olympics held in Canada</a>.</p>
<p>Organizers awarded the second GANEFO to Egypt, but had to cancel the event as war with Israel loomed. Instead, Cambodia hosted an “Asian GANEFO” in 1966. The <a href="https://youtu.be/sTbZOPFnXqI">opening ceremonies</a> attempted to evoke the same nation-building efforts as Indonesia’s GANEFO.</p>
<p>With the end of this last hurrah, GANEFO faded from the scene. One can see its legacy, however, in the way that Third World governments would subsequently use sports as one avenue to pursue international political goals. In this sense, GANEFO won the day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Webster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Olympics claim not to be political, but in the 1960s a counter movement organized by left-leaning countries put politics front and centre.David Webster, Associate Professor of History / Professeur Agrégé, Département d’Histoire, Bishop's UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1240882019-09-27T04:52:55Z2019-09-27T04:52:55ZWant to really understand football culture? Here are 6 things to watch out for on Grand Final Day<p>The AFL Grand Final is more than a physical contest between professional athletes.</p>
<p>It is a culture unto itself, crafted through a distinct set of social practices enacted by players, coaches, supporters, and the media, realised by a set of shared meaning making and communicative practices. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning-making">Meaning making</a>” is a term used in disciplines like linguistics and semiotics to refer to the human processes of production (speaking, writing, creating) and reception (listening, reading and viewing) and their role in shaping culture. We can understand the culture of an AFL grand final as it is realised through these meaning making practices. </p>
<p>As linguists with an interest in sports discourse, we present six significant moments of meaning making for supporters on AFL Grand Final Day. </p>
<h2>1. The roar of the crowd</h2>
<p>The crowd is cheering!</p>
<p>They’re yelling and jeering; booing and grunting.</p>
<p>They’re mumbling: softness, a slow rhythm, a lax voice quality, a low pitch. </p>
<p>They’re screaming: loudness, speed, tension, and high pitch. </p>
<p>This is spoken language at its most emotive, the way supporters participate in the play: at the oval, at the pub, or at the BBQ. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7esGUGfRk3g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Language in this form is a physical response to tension – or a release from tension – brought about by the game. Think about the way your body reacts when a player on your team is about to be tackled. You tense your body, clasp your hands, lean forward into the action. </p>
<p>The seconds seem like hours. </p>
<p>This tension is released as sound and language: “kick it, kick it, kick it… Arghhh!”</p>
<p>This physical expression of language is heightened during a grand final. As the tension reaches its peak for the season on the field, the tension reaches its peak in your body. </p>
<p>For the 2015 AFL Grand Final between Hawthorn and West Coast, the AFL produced a video capturing the sound of the crowd at important moments in the game. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JK7vNi2eb94?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Listen to this video without viewing the footage. The sound from the crowd of over 90,000 people is a unified soundscape, never silent, shifting from cheers to boos, with crescendos and decrescendos throughout the game. </p>
<p>As the game comes to its conclusion, the variation in the soundscape expands to include a “bronx” cheer (a sarcastic cheer), chanting, and then a final siren cheer that surpasses all others in volume.</p>
<h2>2. High-stakes commentary</h2>
<p>Commentary has multiple functions: it describes the real-time sporting event; provides context and statistical; and it can include emotive language from the commentators with the aim to keep an audience interested. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-afl-commentary-works-the-same-way-as-iron-age-epic-poetry-103604">Why AFL commentary works the same way as Iron Age epic poetry</a>
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<p>An AFL grand final is especially high-stakes for commentators: they need to perfectly capture through language iconic moments, as their commentary becomes part of the history of the game.</p>
<p>Mike Williamson’s “Jesaulenko, you beauty” from the 1970 VFL Grand Final is noteworthy for its timing, simplicity and use of Australian vernacular. It has become an Aussie classic with a life of its own. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pu7y-rZXbB8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Ted Whitton’s “Hit the boundary line!” in the final minutes of the 1966 Grand Final as St Kilda led Collingwood by one point wonderfully captures the tension felt at that moment in the game.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/INPrcg3-SS8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Stephen Quartermain’s “Leo Barry, you star!” from 2005 has become iconic, as the Sydney Swans defender took a high-flying mark to secure victory. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F_Ps51mE_ck?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Supporters not only remember the iconic physical on-field acts, but also the words that accompanied their viewing. </p>
<h2>3. The Record</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293727/original/file-20190924-54744-ngxrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293727/original/file-20190924-54744-ngxrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293727/original/file-20190924-54744-ngxrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293727/original/file-20190924-54744-ngxrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293727/original/file-20190924-54744-ngxrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293727/original/file-20190924-54744-ngxrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293727/original/file-20190924-54744-ngxrqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Football Record from 1919, where Geelong played Essendon.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The beloved Footy Record. The title says it all. The official written artefact of the game. </p>
<p>On the one hand, it functions as a record of the game. Possession of it signifies in-person attendance. </p>
<p>Supporters read the text, analyse the numbers, and view the images. They record scores and make notes. </p>
<p>They are active producers of the meaning making: they mark the artefact and help share in its production. </p>
<h2>4. Showing allegiances</h2>
<p>Meaning making is not exclusively words on a page or sounds from vocal tracts. </p>
<p>Supporters make meaning through the clothes they wear and the objects they possess. </p>
<p>This is especially the case on AFL Grand Final Day, as supporters go to extremes to show their allegiances through scarves, hats, socks, jumpers, face painting – even underwear. </p>
<p>They do the same with objects: balloons, flags, footballs, teddy bears and the icing on the cake is, well, icing on a cake. </p>
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<p>From a meaning making perspective, two factors are particularly important: colour and symbols. </p>
<p>Here, Collingwood supporters at the 2018 Grand Final deployed the colours black and white through a range of dress and paraphernalia. </p>
<p>The symbol of the magpie shows their allegiance: to their team, and to each other.<br>
You don’t need to tell the world through language you are aligned with one team or another: your paraphernalia says it all.</p>
<h2>5. The post-match interview</h2>
<p>Post-match interviews are critical moments of meaning making in sport. </p>
<p>Supporters listen to player’s responses to journalist’s questions, hoping to get insight into the mindset of their respective teams; a glimpse of their favourite player’s character; and a better understanding of what happened on the field. </p>
<p>Typically, these interviews are cliched events. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234745265_Working_Your_Words_Appraisal_in_the_AFL_Post-Match_Interview">Linguistic analysis</a> of AFL post-match interviews has shown players follow a strict pattern: they avoid being overly positive, because this is perceived as arrogant; they avoid being overly negative, because this is perceived as weak. </p>
<p>The result is a predictable language pattern of low commitment, and countering positivity with negativity (and vice versa).</p>
<p>In this video, Dayne Beams is asked about Collingwood beating the Brisbane Lions, 123 points to 61. </p>
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<p>“It was a really even team performance tonight. Everyone played their role and chipped in. Um. Yeah. We came away pretty comfortable.”</p>
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<p>Post-match interviews on AFL Grand Final Day present a deviation from this norm. </p>
<p>Players express heightened emotional language, they swear and they boast. They are less formal, less predictable, and less cliched. </p>
<p>They don’t reference “next week.” They reference loved ones and support networks. They scream and they cry. </p>
<p>A grand final post-match interview is worth observing for what it is not, as much as for what it is. This is illustrated wonderfully in the following exchange, after Richmond ended its grand final drought in 2017:</p>
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<p>“Dusty, are you happy to stay at Tigerland?”</p>
<p>“Oh fucking oath! Richmond fans! It’s awesome! Come on!”</p>
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<h2>6. Songs to bond</h2>
<p>The team song. A meaning making act exclusively for the victorious team. This is the ultimate moment of bonding between players, coaches and staff. </p>
<p>At the 2012 Grand Final, the Sydney Swans refused to begin the song until all players were linked together in a circle.</p>
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<p>For supporters, the team song is also significant vocal ritual. Unlike the game itself, supporters don’t have to watch the players sing. They actively participate. They sing in chorus, in physical and semiotic unison with their heroes.</p>
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<h2>Passion play</h2>
<p>To participate in AFL Grand Final Day is to make meaning. </p>
<p>Supporters speak, they listen, they create and they consume. They reveal identities and allegiances. The game and its culture is much more than players on the field – it is also about us in the stands or at home, barracking along, feeling every bit a part of the game as the professionals.</p>
<p>When you watch the game this weekend, try and step back for a moment and look at the range of shared systems of meaning making which bond us as a culture. </p>
<p>In this case: a culture with a serious passion for sport.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The AFL Grand Final is more than a physical contest between professional athletes: it is a day we collectively make meaning, and create culture.David Caldwell, Lecturer in Language and Linguistics, University of South AustraliaJohn Walsh, Visiting Research Fellow, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1183822019-06-16T17:23:41Z2019-06-16T17:23:41ZHere are the best parents to have around, according to youth sport coaches<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278889/original/file-20190611-32351-7828jn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C14%2C3158%2C2118&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Parenting style impacts the emotional climate in kids' team sports, and parenting practices impact positive and negative outcomes for child athletes. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash/Ben Hershey</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Youth sport is part of the fabric of family life for many families. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13573322.2016.1150834">Parents are more intensely involved</a> in contemporary youth sport than ever before. And while youth sport can provide a context for parent-child interaction and bonding, parents exert both positive and negative influences on their children in sport.</p>
<p>Parents help children understand and interpret their sport experiences, acting as role models of positive and negative behaviours, attitudes and beliefs. But being the parent of a young athlete is an intricate social experience that cannot merely be reduced to “good” or “bad” behaviours. </p>
<h2>Complex social milieu</h2>
<p>In sport, parenting occurs in a complex social milieu, in which parents interact with other parents, coaches and children. Parents face complex demands that require a repertoire of skills to facilitate positive sport experiences for their children. </p>
<p>Given these complexities, perhaps it is not surprising that coaches, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029217307100">sport organizations</a> and even <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/pdf/10.1123/tsp.27.3.281">parents themselves</a> have called for more parent education and support.</p>
<p>Parenting approaches can be thought of in two distinct but related ways. First, there’s parenting style — the broader emotional climate parents create. A parenting style <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED467276">that supports children’s autonomy</a> is particularly effective for enhancing children’s motivation and experiences. </p>
<p>Such parents provide their children with options to choose and encourage children to solve problems on their own rather than controlling their children’s behaviours. They provide structure in the form of clear and consistent guidelines, boundaries and rules for their children’s behaviour. They are often highly involved in their children’s sport, but still foster a sense of children’s independence.</p>
<h2>Holding children accountable</h2>
<p>In addition to identifying the emotional climate that parents create with their parenting styles, sport researchers also consider parenting practices — specific behaviours within a particular context, such as at a youth sport event. Specific parenting practices have been associated with positive and negative outcomes among children. </p>
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<span class="caption">Child athletes prefer when parents provide positive yet realistic post-competition feedback.</span>
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<p>For instance, in studies examining the role of parents in junior tennis using the perspectives of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16702176">coaches</a>, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-19053-011">players and parents</a>, parenting practices perceived to positively influence players’ development included the provision of unconditional love, logistical and financial support and parents holding children accountable for their on-court behaviour. Conversely, negative parenting practices included parents over-emphasizing winning, lacking emotional control and criticizing children.</p>
<p>Similarly, studies <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2010.495324">with child athletes</a> themselves have revealed their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02701367.2011.10599807">preferences for parenting practices surrounding competitions</a>. For example, my colleagues and I studied how <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10413200.2010.525589">early adolescent female athletes prefer their parents to behave at team sport competitions</a>. We found their preferences include parents assisting with game preparation, focusing on effort rather than outcome, showing respect, not drawing undue attention to themselves and providing positive yet realistic post-competition feedback.</p>
<h2>‘Best’ sport parents</h2>
<p>One study we conducted at the University of Alberta examined exemplary parenting in competitive female youth team sport. We asked coaches to nominate <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-39065-001">some of the “best” sport parents the coaches had ever worked with</a>. </p>
<p>The study revealed some interesting findings. These parents supported their daughters’ autonomy in various ways, including fostering independence and understanding — and supporting — their daughters’ goals for sport. We found the idea of sharing goals is important; these exemplary parents shared their children’s goals, rather than imposing their own goals on their children. </p>
<p>Exemplary parents also build healthy relationships in the sporting milieu, which can involve supporting the coach and players on the team, connecting with other parents and volunteering with the club. Finally, these parents were in tune with their own emotions, especially during and after competitions.</p>
<h2>Importance of free & active play</h2>
<p>Parents are increasingly becoming aware of advice that children should sample a range of sports, rather than specializing in a single sport. There is some evidence to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2325967116644241">support the benefits of sport sampling and the risks of early specialization</a>. However, in the larger goal of supporting healthy child and family development, parents should be cautious about involving their children in too many sports. </p>
<p>When sport seasons overlap, children may become overscheduled. It is vital to retain a sense of balance, because if children over sample and become overscheduled, they miss out on a vital part of their childhood — <a href="https://theconversation.com/let-them-play-kids-need-freedom-from-play-restrictions-to-develop-117586">active play</a>. Parents, too, can hardly expect to be at their best when they’re run ragged with travelling from event to event.</p>
<p>Parents can create positive sporting experiences if they listen to their children and understand their children’s goals for sport, consider how their parenting styles and practices support their children’s experiences, and build healthy relationships in the sporting milieu. But with this investment in sport, it is important to retain a sense of balance in children’s lives.</p>
<p>Sport then becomes an enjoyable and rewarding feature of family life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Holt receives funding from Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Supporting one’s child on a sports team isn’t always a walk at the ballpark. Parents face complex demands that require a repertoire of skills that are rarely discussed or taught.Nick Holt, Professor in Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1098242019-01-14T14:14:29Z2019-01-14T14:14:29ZAndy Murray: breaking away from sport’s ‘no pain, no gain’ culture<p>Two things struck me while watching Andy Murray’s press conference from the Australian Open, in which he announced his intention to retire. He spoke about the pain he had lived with “over the past 20 months or so”, and how he had planned to continue until Wimbledon this summer but was no longer sure he could. Then there was a long pause, that lump in the throat, before he was able to utter the words “stop playing”.</p>
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<p>My first question was: “Why not sooner?” Why would someone put himself through such suffering for such a long time, despite knowing that the consequences of this overuse of his body would haunt him for the rest of his life? Why not stop before? And my second question was: “Will he be OK after retiring?”</p>
<p>Scrolling through the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/11/andy-murray-tennis-world-sport-tribute">numerous tweets</a> from tennis celebrities on the subject, I found one regret kept appearing over and over again: “Sorry you cannot retire on your own terms.” Not only is retirement considered a tough process for athletes, but <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029202000468">research has confirmed</a> that retirement due to injury is especially difficult. The athlete is forced into the decision of abandoning their life, not because of lack of motivation but because their body has given up.</p>
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<p>The question is whether there is a way to avoid this. Should we just accept that elite sport is bad for the body, and not just in the long term, but more and more often in the short term? Like many retiring athletes, Andy Murray is only in his early thirties and has suffered painful injuries throughout his career. What is it that makes it OK to be in severe pain for 20 months and keep playing?</p>
<p>Sport sociologists have identified that what is known as a <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/10.1123/ssj.10.2.183">culture of risk</a> dominates professional sport. Its <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/ssj.8.4.307?journalCode=ssj">ethical values</a> of sacrifice, striving for greatness, taking chances, rejecting limits and playing through pain are reflected in the way pain is portrayed as normal and risks are glorified. In particular, injury and pain are seen as a constant fixture in a competitor’s life, and they are not a “real athlete” if they do not train and play through these problems.</p>
<p>Although warm and encouraging, many tweets directed to Murray highlighted this tendency to glorify risk and pain, such as “everyone wants you to keep fighting” or “stay strong and keep fighting”, “continue to keep fighting on court”. Wasn’t fighting for 20 months enough?</p>
<p>This culture encourages athletes not to listen to and take care of their bodies, something that perhaps Murray has now realised. When <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/11/tearful-andy-murray-to-retire-after-2019-wimbledon-australian-open">discussing the hip surgery</a> he is considering, he said: “The reason for having an operation is not to return to professional sport, it’s just for a better quality of life.” At 31, Murray still has a lot of life to live. As 12-time grand slam champion Billie Jean King <a href="https://twitter.com/BillieJeanKing/status/1083567728869498881">put it</a>: “[His] greatest impact on the world may be yet to come.”</p>
<p>Yet if you believe in <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:GpHswkJ0L20J:https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20001808506+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk">the idea</a> that “sport is life and life is sport”, it becomes difficult to imagine how Murray will ever be happy and fully satisfied again. The dominant culture makes it very difficult for athletes to say goodbye to their sport and move onto something new.</p>
<p>A developing branch of sport psychology that focuses on the narratives that we use to talk and think about sport might help understand this process, the bumps in the road and potential ways to reach a happy ending. According to this narrative research, humans are <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo14674212.html">“storied beings”</a>, which means that they make sense of their lives through creating and sharing their personal stories. Stories have a plot, and narrative researchers argue that each culture has a shared number of plots (narratives) that we use to understand and inform their lives.</p>
<p>The most common – and encouraged – narrative in elite sport is <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/wspaj.15.2.14">the performance narrative</a>, which runs along the lines of: “I love my sport. My sport is everything in my life. Nothing is more important than my sport and succeeding in it.” Not surprisingly, this narrative means that to be successful an athlete needs to be single-minded and focused on their sport to the exclusion of other areas of life.</p>
<h2>Changing the narrative</h2>
<p>As a result, things then become much more difficult for athletes once the professional chapter of the story ends. My own research with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2159676X.2017.1335651">retired elite gymnasts</a> highlights how athletes who fall under a performance narrative while at the top of their game, end up with a much more confused personal story, an entangled narrative, once they retire. The plot of their story is: “I was a successful gymnast. I am not a gymnast anymore. I want to be a gymnast again.” Because other areas of their lives aren’t developed, they fix a melancholic gaze on the past, unable to refocus on, enjoy or develop from present experiences.</p>
<p>But it doesn’t have to be like this. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19398440902909033?src=recsys">Other narratives</a> allow athletes to step away from the classic expectations of the culture of risk, and allow them to develop more successfully towards their happy-ever-after. For example, the discovery narrative involves developing other identities outside of the sport.</p>
<p>Thankfully, Murray has already started to do this, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1612197X.2017.1313296">becoming a father</a>, as well as an inspirational <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/jan/11/feminism-andy-murray-global-icon-tennis-amelie-mauresmo">role model and feminist</a>. Hopefully these roles will help him get through the reinvention of his story and further inspire the next generation of athletes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109824/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesca Cavallerio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Too often athletes are forced into a narrative in which their sport overtakes everything, to the detriment of their health and future happiness.Francesca Cavallerio, Lecturer in Sport Psychology, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/589992016-05-09T00:55:55Z2016-05-09T00:55:55ZFans deserve fair play in major sports, not cheating and corruption<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121486/original/image-20160506-450-5nhkft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fans who go to the stadium or barrack from their living rooms need to be assured that sport is real. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Oleksii Sidorov</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why is global sport business booming and why does this come with the increasing frequency and growing size of integrity scandals of bribery, corruption and cheating?</p>
<p>This is something I have been giving serious thought to as I prepared for today’s biannual <a href="http://www.vucentenary.com.au/events/integrity-sport-forum-2016">Integrity in Sport Forum</a> in Melbourne, co-hosted by the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and Victoria University. </p>
<p>I think that the digitisation of sport combined with big data analytics has dramatically increased the attractiveness of the product on sale. With that comes the desire to win or be associated with winners, a longing for social acceptance and narcissistic craving to shine.</p>
<p>Ultimately, there is no market without a product that is in demand. And sport is hot property.</p>
<p>One very important reason why sport has been in demand for decades is its primordial simplicity. Every human being understands “you against me”, “them against us” and winners trumping losers.</p>
<p>But it is the digital production and distribution of sport competitions that now allows for global and instant access to a mass market for sport businesses. Big data analytics and near real-time digital responsiveness have enabled the slicing and dicing of sporting contests into endless sub-products. </p>
<h2>Odds on</h2>
<p>Betting agencies are selling odds to <em>parts</em> of the sporting contest, such as who will score the first goal, who will commit the foul next or what will be the half-time score. </p>
<p>With these multiplying moments of monetisation of sport comes the opportunities for criminals to exploit the loopholes and gaps in integrity safeguarding. </p>
<p>Bribing an athlete to ensure that one tiny aspect of the sporting contest can be predicted is enough to make millions, such as the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-01/40-professional-tennis-matches-flagged-for-match-fixing/7127240">scandal in world tennis</a> revealed in January this year.</p>
<p>Further fuelling the sport business gravy train are the rich, but not so famous (yet). They use high-profile sport to show off their economic power and bask in the reflected glory of their team – in the process creating a sense of personal achievement and social acceptance.</p>
<p>But are they the right reason to be involved in sport governance.</p>
<p>Could <a href="http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3766345/im-sorry-says-tinkler/">private sport ownership</a> in Australia lead to similar excesses? </p>
<p>In order to access the benefits that global sport offers as a platform, winning at all cost is too often required on the sporting field, but also in the sport business corridors. </p>
<p>It may be achieved by taking performance enhancing drugs that deliver superhuman performance, or using excessive financial resources to buy influence to stay in power.</p>
<p>So is sport business at the crossroads? </p>
<h2>Whom do you trust?</h2>
<p>In sport governance, whom do we trust? Are the current crop of sport governors and sport managers capable, skilled and equipped well enough to combat the forces that seek to illegally exploit the exploding profit potential of sport?</p>
<p>How do we prepare, train and educate the future managers of sport? Can the primal spirit of sport be maintained and its integrity kept safe? </p>
<p>A global compact between the leading international sport federations on what should be the basic business principles that underpin and regulate the trade in sport is required. </p>
<p>A coalition of sport governing bodies, government, international authorities, business, academia and civil society was announced earlier last month in the Sport Integrity Global Alliance (<a href="http://www.theicss.org/en/news/read/new-sport-integrity-global-alliance-siga-launched">SIGA</a>). </p>
<p>The Alliance needs to agree on how far the commodification of sport can be allowed to progress before the integrity of its production and consumption is irrevocably tarnished. </p>
<p>Educators, researchers, administrators and politicians need to combine their brainpower and industry knowledge. An admirable and crucial initiative, but one is left wondering how key principles that more than 40 organisations signed onto are implemented and enforced. </p>
<p>How, for example, is such an Alliance going establish an</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] independent betting monitoring platform, capable of providing sport integrity intelligence alerts to sporting, law enforcement, betting operators and government stakeholders to assure early warning advice.</p>
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<p>Or</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] establish independent monitoring, audit and oversight in relation to all sport-related development programs and financial transactions. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And how can this happen when sports themselves are competing against each other for the best TV rights deal, host city arrangement, biggest sponsorship deal and slice of the gambling dollar, not to mention the best available athletic talent to take their sport to the next level? </p>
<p>Those people who go to the stadium or the fans barracking from their living rooms need to be assured that sport is real. </p>
<p>They need to be confident that their cheers are part of a real contest, that the outcome remains unpredictable, the contest limited to those competing in it, and that there is always a chance that the underdog can win. </p>
<p>Only then can the superstars of world sport be role models for the millions of weekend warriors in communities around the world. </p>
<p>All of us, those who will only ever play sport for the fun of it, and who use sport to meet and congregate will decide if sport remains worthy of such prominence in society. If that primal spirit of sport is lost, so will be its profit potential, because nobody is prepared to pay a premium for a fake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58999/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hans Westerbeek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the business of sport booms why does this come with an increasing frequency of integrity scandals of bribery, corruption and cheating?Hans Westerbeek, Dean, College of Sport and Exercise Science and Institute of Sport, Exercise, Active Living, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/588702016-05-08T20:05:06Z2016-05-08T20:05:06ZIntegrity in sport needs to grow from the grassroots level<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121461/original/image-20160506-5708-rsag58.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Integrity in sport should start from the bottom up.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1633145p1.html">Shutterstock/Paolo Bona</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sporting world was shocked by yet another scandal last week when the Parramatta Eels were found guilty of what National Rugby League CEO <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/video/video-sport/video-rugby-league/parramatta-eels-deliberate-system-of-cheating-20160503-4eeft.html">Todd Greenberg called</a> “a deliberate, coordinated and sustained system of salary cap cheating”. </p>
<p>This sort of behaviour doesn’t just affect the major league team. It can have consequences at all levels of the game.</p>
<p>This means global and national attempts to improve governance and safeguard sport from corruption need to have community sport reach if they are to be effective.</p>
<p>The International Centre for Sport Security announced in April this year the creation of a 50+ nation Sport Integrity Global Alliance (<a href="http://www.theicss.org/en/news/read/new-sport-integrity-global-alliance-siga-launched">SIGA</a>) to drive reform in sport. </p>
<p>The tipping point for reform was likely the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32897066">FIFA scandal</a> that has rocked the soccer world since 2015 with claims of widespread corruption. SIGA is a neutral coalition of international stakeholders across the government and private sector seeking to promote good governance and financial transparency in sport.</p>
<p>In Australia, there have been widespread changes to rebuild sport integrity and public trust. Much of this follows the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-the-blackest-day-in-australian-sport-20130207-2e1i3.html">crisis in Australian sport</a> in 2013, which included the Australian Crime Commission report into organised crime in sport and the AFL supplements scandal. </p>
<p>In addition to expanded policing powers, the Australian government has established a <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/national-integrity-of-sport-unit">National Integrity in Sport Unit</a>. The peak body Exercise & Sports Science Australia (<a href="https://www.essa.org.au/">ESSA</a>) has developed a sport science accreditation scheme.</p>
<p>Professional sport organisations are increasingly employing integrity officers and the market is filling with sport integrity-related courses, workshops and seminars.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that substantial international and national efforts will be required to re-establish the credibility of sport. That’s a theme that will feature prominently at today’s <a href="http://www.vucentenary.com.au/events/integrity-sport-forum-2016">Integrity in Sport Forum: In Governance We Trust</a> in Melbourne, sponsored by Victoria University and Sport Australia Hall of Fame.</p>
<p>The Forum will bring together more than 200 of Australia’s elite and community sport governance and integrity officials, as well as business and community leaders. The aim is to discuss ways forward to meet a range of sport integrity challenges. </p>
<h2>From the bottom up</h2>
<p>While there is a need for these coordinated efforts to target doping, match fixing, financial corruption and other threats to sport integrity, more support is needed at the local sport level.</p>
<p>Research presented at a sport stakeholders forum in July last year suggested that local communities <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/contact-us/dennis-hemphill">may be unaware</a> of the extent to which performance enhancing substances and methods, illicit drugs and illegal gambling markets have filtered down to the community sport level.</p>
<p>Managers, coaches and players who might be aware of them are willing to do something about it. But they may not be aware of who to contact for more information or how to report suspect behaviours. </p>
<p>In a sport sector managed largely by volunteers, there may simply be insufficient time to implement procedures to prevent and police these dubious behaviours and practices.</p>
<h2>From the top down</h2>
<p>Moreover, the high-performance ethos, which may be appropriate at the elite sport level, has gradually filtered down to community sport level. </p>
<p>With that has come some of the threats to sporting integrity. It is not uncommon to see increasing training loads and the use of supplements or other means to improve performance or manage pain and injuries. Player and umpire abuse by overzealous coaches and fans is another symptom.</p>
<p>At the same time, the rise of sport betting, even at junior sport levels, increases the risk of cheating to lose.</p>
<p>Sport integrity can be thought of as the consistent living up to declared standards and principles. These principles are different at elite, school and community sport levels.</p>
<p>It goes without saying that elite sport focuses on the value of performance excellence. </p>
<p>But the educational value of school sport is still thought to lie in skill acquisition, fitness and character building. The mission statements and mottoes of community sport organisations usually centre on participation, fun, doing your best and community building.</p>
<h2>Leadership from above</h2>
<p>One way forward is for the governing bodies of sport to provide the leadership and additional resources to help local sporting clubs “walk the talk”, that is, uphold the values and principles that are appropriate to community sport.</p>
<p>The Australian Sport Commission provides resources for <a href="http://www.ausport.gov.au/supporting/integrity_in_sport/integrity_partners_and_community_programsgood">sport integrity</a> and <a href="http://www.ausport.gov.au/supporting/governance/governance_principles">governance</a>, as does <a href="http://vicsport.com.au/good-governance-framework-toolkit-update-released/">VicSport</a> and the <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/national-integrity-of-sport-unit">National Integrity in Sport Unit</a>.</p>
<p>Victoria University is currently working with Sport and Recreation Victoria on a sport integrity readiness project. This aims to provide the state’s sporting associations and eventually community clubs with a handy self-assessment tool to improve awareness and management of sport integrity risks.</p>
<p>There is no reason why such tools could not be adopted by other Australian states and territories, or even clubs and associations overseas.</p>
<p>More is still needed to improve the uptake of these resources and their effective use by local communities to safeguard sport for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58870/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Hemphill, as part of a Victoria University research team, has received funding from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services to conduct an analysis of, and develop resources for sport integrity awareness and management capability in community sport. </span></em></p>Efforts to wipe out doping, match fixing, corruption and other threats to sport integrity need to start at the local level.Dennis Hemphill, Associate Professor of Sport Ethics, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/472612015-09-09T20:14:13Z2015-09-09T20:14:13ZTackling the stigma: how sports can help change perceptions of mental illness<p>News that Sydney Swans star Lance “Buddy” Franklin, arguably the biggest name in the Australian Football League (AFL), is experiencing a <a href="http://www.sydneyswans.com.au/news/2015-09-08/club-statement-lance-franklin">mental health condition</a> has garnered a lot of media attention. His story highlights not only the persistent stigma surrounding mental illness, but the potential of sport to help tackle it. </p>
<p>Revelations about Franklin’s mental ill-health should come as no surprise, given that <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/1301.0Chapter11082009%E2%80%9310">almost half the population</a> experiences a mental health issue at some point in their lives, at an <a href="https://www.medibankhealth.com.au/news-article.asp?id=78&t=Expenditure+on+mental+illness+in+Australia+revealed+to+be+%2428.6+billion+per+year&pid=0">estimated cost of A$28 billion a year</a>. Why, then, do we find it so hard to talk about something that’s so prevalent?</p>
<h2>More and more</h2>
<p>Franklin is not the first high-profile athlete to reveal a struggle with mental illness. English cricketer <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/theashes/11697654/Ashes-2015-Jonathan-Trott-achieves-great-closure-by-watching-England.html">Jonathan Trott withdrew from the 2013-14 Ashes campaign</a> citing poor mental health. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/sep/08/brandon-marshall-interview-athletes-struggle-to-identify-with-mental-illness">American footballer Brandon Marshall from the New York Jets</a> has made it his mission since 2011 to break the taboo associated with mental illness, openly discussing his experience with <a href="http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/stronger-ever-brandon-marshall-learns-live-borderline-personality-231007042--nfl.html">borderline personality disorder</a>. </p>
<p>Closer to home, AFL player <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/geelong-forward-mitch-clark-in-tears-after-teams-win-over-collingwood/story-fni5f6yf-1227347759122?sv=328087257ba312ba657f3aa5f5495bf9">Mitch Clark’s battle with depression</a> has received national coverage, including his bold appeal to others to reach out.</p>
<p>While these are all positive individual steps, they also highlight the stigma that surrounds mental illness (why raise awareness if something is entirely acceptable to society already?). And they show how our sporting culture and elite sports organisations are uniquely placed to break down this stigma.</p>
<p>The problem is that the <a href="http://thenewdaily.com.au/sport/2015/09/08/buddy-franklins-revelation-moved-goalposts-mental-illness/">culture of sport</a> and, more broadly, notions of Australian masculinity strongly contribute to the stigma surrounding mental illness. They both encourage a “harden up” culture, creating an expectation that people should be able to maintain emotional stability in the face of adversity.</p>
<p>Parallels can be drawn with the “get on with it” approach among first-responders (emergency services). This is the idea that emergency service personnel have a job to do and should ignore the potentially serious psychological impact of their day-to-day work. In an effort to reduce the risk of psychological injury among emergency response crews, organisations such as <a href="http://www.behindtheseenaustralia.com/about-us.html">Behind the Seen</a> are providing workshops to increase awareness of and promote help-seeking behaviour among first-responders.</p>
<h2>Current efforts</h2>
<p>But that’s not to say that sporting organisations aren’t making an effort to positively influence the national discourse on mental illness. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94237/original/image-20150909-18669-1bl13l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94237/original/image-20150909-18669-1bl13l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94237/original/image-20150909-18669-1bl13l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94237/original/image-20150909-18669-1bl13l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94237/original/image-20150909-18669-1bl13l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94237/original/image-20150909-18669-1bl13l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94237/original/image-20150909-18669-1bl13l6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">American footballer Brandon Marshall from the New York Jets has made it his mission since to break the taboo associated with mental illness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Miami_Dolphins_wide_receiver_Brandon_Marshall_practices_during_pregame_warm_up_for_the_National_Football_League%27s_2012_Pro_Bowl_game_at_Aloha_Stadium_in_Honolulu_Jan_120129-M-DX861-041.jpg">By Cpl Jody Lee Smith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-involved/the-beyondblue-national-roadshow/afl-beyondblue-cup-2015">Beyond Blue Cup</a>, now an annual event in the Beyond Blue National Roadshow, is a prime example of the potential for sport to promote awareness and reduce stigma at a national level. This match is played in the major football codes (AFL, <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/media/media-releases/media-releases/-i-beyondblue-i-nrl-bulldogs-and-knights-team-up-to-raise-awareness-of-depression-and-anxiety-in-mackay-in-the-lead-up-to-the-i-beyondblue-i-cup">NRL</a> and <a href="https://www.beyondblue.org.au/docs/default-source/media-release-pdf/mr-280.pdf?sfvrsn=0">A-League</a>) while raising money and awareness for mental health services. </p>
<p>In the United Kingdom, sporting bodies have teamed up with the deputy prime minister and committed to removing the stigma and prejudice around mental health from the “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deputy-prime-minister-launches-mental-health-in-sport-initiative">pitch to the playground</a>” (#SportMinds). These organisations have agreed to promote well-being and good mental health policies and to tackle discrimination on the grounds of mental health.</p>
<p>On a smaller scale, a group of surfers from Sydney’s Bondi Beach formed a not-for-profit organisation called <a href="http://onewaveisallittakes.com/">OneWave</a> to tackle stigma through surfing, while wearing fluorescent clothes, to stimulate discussion of mental health among surfers and other beach users. </p>
<h2>A vehicle for change</h2>
<p>Using sport as a vehicle to de-stigmatise social issues is not a new phenomenon. The <a href="http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/sport/home/sport/sportandmdgs">United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace</a> has long advocated sports to promote social inclusion of stigmatised and marginalised groups. But sport programs that target mental illness appear to be an exception. Discussing mental illness continues to be <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23729-the-mental-illness-taboo-is-a-problem-for-all-of-us/">taboo</a> across many cultures. </p>
<p>The evidence supporting the role of sport in promoting mental health in marginalised groups, such as <a href="http://jsfd.org/article/exploring-the-impact-of-sport-participation-in-the-homeless-world-cup-on-individuals-with-substance-abuse-or-mental-health-disorders/">homeless people</a> and <a href="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/619">children affected by war</a>, is only just emerging. So despite growing support for the potential of sport to address stigma in mental illness, more work is clearly needed. </p>
<p>Franklin’s story is an opportunity to de-stigmatise mental illness among one of the “toughest” audiences. By publicly <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-09/afl-community-supports-lance-franklin-in-mental-health-battle/6760976">embracing one of its stars</a>, the AFL is helping to normalise the experience of mental illness, pushing back against perceptions that it reflects some kind of weakness. </p>
<p>In a country that prides itself on international prowess on the sporting field, de-stigmatising mental illness through the stories of sporting heroes is a powerful way of starting a conversation. Community perceptions can change with greater awareness that no one is too tough or immune.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin’s story highlights not only the persistent stigma surrounding mental illness, but the potential of sport to help tackle it.Justin Richards, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, University of SydneyPhilip Ward, Associate Professor, Psychiatry, UNSW SydneySimon Rosenbaum, Post-doctoral Fellow, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.