By Rhea Panwar
Sport promises freedom, resilience and equality. A space where people from all walks of life can compete freely, work as a team and let their hard work and talent shine above all else. But for many women, these arenas of empowerment instead become sites of control, abuse and silence. Abuse in sport is not a series of isolated scandals, it is a systemic crisis.
These stories are painfully familiar, recurring across disciplines around the world. A gymnast, Nicole Pavier, weighed daily by her coaches, driven to bulimia at just fourteen. Another, Eloise Jotischky, isolated, verbally assaulted and relentlessly shamed for her body. A star athlete, Simone Biles, standing before the world to testify about abuse that reached far beyond a single individual. A runner, Londa Bevins, cornered in her coach’s office, her scholarship held over her head as leverage. A pattern emerges. Power imbalances, manipulation and silence that allows abuse to thrive, fueled by male-dominated leadership and a toxic culture that values reputation and profit over athletes’ safety.
Research only confirms what survivors have long known. Abuse in sport is widespread and often normalized, cutting levels of play – from grassroots to elite competition. A recent meta-synthesis on gender-based violence in sport, published in Trauma, Violence & Abuse, found that between 26–74% of women athletes experience some form of abuse during their careers. The problem often begins early. The World Players Association’s Census of Athlete Rights Experiences (CARE) shows that 21% of female athletes (compared with 11% of males) were sexually abused as children in sport, almost double the rate among boys. These harms aren’t always physical. A study on body image and eating disorders among female athletes, published in The Journal of Psychology, revealed that over 60% feel pressure from coaches about their body shape, reflecting how control over women’s bodies is woven into everyday training. And even beyond the playing field, a World Athletics study around the Tokyo Olympic Games found that female athletes are disproportionately targeted by online harassment, much of it sexist or sexual in nature.
If sport culture thrives on silence, control and entrenched power imbalances, leaving women athletes vulnerable, how can coaching be reshaped to be fair, accountable, and truly safe?
Power, Patriarchy and a Culture of Silence
Women and girls encounter particular risks, exacerbated by ineffective or absent safeguards and reporting systems. Sports governing bodies frequently place medals, prestige and profit above athlete welfare, cultivating an environment where harm can persist unchecked. The Whyte Review into UK gymnastics exposed this reality. Physical and emotional abuse was found to be “systemic.” Athletes were forced to train on injuries, shouted at, sat on by coaches, punished for needing the toilet, and closely monitored for weight. Emotional abuse (including verbal assault, gaslighting, and humiliation) was also widespread along with sexual misconduct and extreme body control.
Young athletes are especially vulnerable. Abuse often begins in childhood and can continue throughout a sporting career, sometimes even driving athletes to quit altogether. The structure of sport, long hours in far training centres, intense media scrutiny, recruitment pressures and the importance of the coach-athlete relationship, all create a dependency that can easily be exploited. Close, trusted relationships with coaches are essential for success but they inherently carry risks like the misuse of power, unhealthy dependence and the potential for sexual or psychological abuse.
But it isn’t just young athletes alone who are at risk. This culture of entitlement extends far beyond youth. At the very top of global sport, Spanish federation president Luis Rubiales kissed midfielder Jenni Hermoso without consent after Spain’s World Cup victory in 2023, a public act that exposed how abuse of power and disregard for women’s autonomy remain normalized even at the highest levels. Such incidents highlight that systemic failures and hierarchies create environments where abuse can flourish, from smaller clubs to international federations.
These power imbalances are intensified by the broader, patriarchal frameworks of sport itself. Leadership, coaching, and decision-making roles are overwhelmingly held by men, while female coaches remain more uncommon. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for example, just 13% of coaches were women. Globally, fewer than 10% of registered football coaches are female, and even with progress toward gender equality in athletes at the Paris 2024 Games, coaching remains heavily unbalanced. Female athletes often prefer female coaches for guidance on body image, eating disorders, and other gender-specific issues. Although abuse can be perpetrated by anyone, increasing the number of female coaches could help reduce the risk of harassment and create a safer, more empowering and supportive environment for female athletes.
The culture of silence is reinforced by fear and stigma. Athletes may hesitate to speak out because their careers, scholarships, or reputations depend on coaches’ favor. Institutional inaction and ostracization worsen harm, normalizing abuse under the guise of discipline, “win at all costs” mentalities, or the pursuit of excellence. Luisa Garribba Rizzitelli, founder of ASSIST, an organization that champions the rights of female athletes and works to tackle harassment, inequality, and barriers to participation in sport, captures this reality: “So far, there has been, undeniably, a terrible cloak of silence on these issues, and perhaps the tragic case of the American gymnasts has uncovered a problem already known by athletes, myself included.” Her words underscore how systemic these issues are and how urgently sport needs mechanisms that protect and prioritise athletes first.
Understanding Intersectionality in Women’s Sport
To understand the full impact of abuse in women’s sport, it’s essential to adopt an intersectional lens. Not all female athletes face the same risks. The structures that enable abuse intersect with age, gender, race, disability, and sexual orientation, creating layers of vulnerability. The sports environment already imposes strict control over athletes’ bodies, from weight to appearance, but for women of colour, these eurocentric controls can extend to features such as hair, skin tone, or cultural expression. Canadian sprinter Crystal Emmanuel, a two-time Olympian, recalls being told by her coach that her natural hair limited her sponsorship opportunities.
LGBTQIA+ athletes also encounter discrimination and abuse across all levels of play. In an international survey of nearly 9,500 participants, 80% reported witnessing or experiencing homophobia, most often in the form of verbal harassment or exclusion. Athletes with disabilities, those from low-income backgrounds, or those living in rural or marginalized communities also face heightened risks, often worsened by limited access to safeguarding resources. The sporting ecosystem itself amplifies these vulnerabilities. Power is concentrated in hierarchies dominated by men and decision-making is often centralized in a few global governing bodies, leaving little room for diverse perspectives or accountability.
Only by addressing the full spectrum of risk can meaningful protections and safer environments for all athletes be established.
The Lasting Impact of Abuse
For many athletes, the consequences of abuse go far beyond training and competitions, leaving deep and lasting emotional, psychological scars. Trauma, anxiety, and depression are common struggles for survivors, often intertwined with eating disorders and body-image struggles instilled by years of weight policing and humiliation.
Kara Eaker, a former national team member and two-time world champion, retired from gymnastics at just 20 after experiencing verbal and emotional abuse while training with the University of Utah team. On Instagram, she described her physical, mental, and emotional health deteriorating rapidly, seeing a psychologist for over a year and now attending sessions twice a week due to suicidal thoughts, self-harm ideation, and an inability to care for herself. Diagnosed with severe anxiety, depression, panic attacks, PTSD, and night terrors, Eaker also withdrew from the university, her career cut short by abuse.
Yet even amidst the harm, resilience persists. Survivors, like Kara and others mentioned, who speak out, whether in courtrooms, through media or via advocacy groups, expose the systemic failures that allowed abuse to continue. Their courage highlights the urgent need for a sporting culture where accountability, care, and fairness replace fear and silence. Despite nearly 80% of women in football reporting discrimination last year, England’s Chloe Kelly’s defiant words ring out: “we’re here to stay.”
Transforming Coaching Culture – ASSiST’s Mission for Safer Sport
If abuse in sport thrives under silence and unchecked power, fair coaching offers a roadmap for change, one that goes beyond preventing harm to reshape the culture of sport itself. In Italy, where data on abuse and inappropriate behaviour in sports is virtually nonexistent, Luisa Garribba Rizzitelli founded ASSiST 25 years ago alongside a group of former athletes. “All of us founding members had personally experienced serious problems of gender discrimination in sport,” she told Wempower. “Deeply understanding the problems, the dynamics, and the patriarchal and feudal structures that Italian sports still carry with them has been, and still is, a source of great strength and expertise.”
ASSiST was created to address gaps in safeguarding, where authoritarian coaching, normalized aggression and silence had left athletes vulnerable. Luisa explains that although many athletes have privately reported negative or abusive experiences, few have ever spoken publicly. “The few cases that emerged were treated as exceptions,” she said. “We believe the problem exists and must be addressed in a structural rather than occasional manner.” At the heart of ASSiST’s work is promoting athlete-centred coaching. For Luisa, “being able to practice fair coaching simply means always maintaining a relationship of utmost respect with your athlete. Empathy and respect must be fundamental principles.” She highlighted examples from volleyball, pointing to coaches Massimo Barbolini and Julio Velasco, who have built a culture of trust, respect, and positive support. “Freeing the coach from macho behaviour and patriarchal stereotypes is the first essential step at any level,” she said.
Through initiatives like the Fair Coaching Project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, ASSiST has worked to turn values of respect, empathy, and empowerment into concrete coaching standards. The three-year project, launched in 2020, aimed to challenge sexist, violent and discriminatory behaviours by promoting awareness among coaches, athletes, families, and supporters, particularly around the risks faced by young women. Its objectives include supporting clubs and federations to adopt binding European codes of conduct, strengthening reporting mechanisms for athletes, and spreading positive models of athlete-centred coaching.
The project’s impact has been so strong that a second edition is now underway. Beyond this, ASSiST provides spaces for dialogue, training for clubs, coaches, and managers, and works with the NGO Differenza Donna through the SAVE project (Sports Abuse and Violence Elimination), offering guidance and direct support for athletes who have experienced abuse.
For Luisa, a truly safe sporting environment is one where athletes, coaches, managers and families have regular, structured opportunities to learn, speak and act on safeguarding. “From my point of view, a safe place is a place where people can talk and where there is daily training on the prevention of all forms of inappropriate behaviour and violence,” she explained. For this to happen, she stressed, “sports clubs, but even more so the national and international federations, must support and at the same time require sports organizations to provide training.” Only by dismantling what she called the “terrible cloak of silence” can sport become a space of fairness, safety, and genuine empowerment for all athletes.
This article is part of the new series “Level the Playing Field: The Untold Stories of Women in Sport.” Each Monday, we publish a new story highlighting the women reshaping the world of sport — on and off the field. To read more inspiring stories of everyday women making a real difference in the world, be sure to check out the latest edition of Wempower magazine, or listen to our podcast.
