From testimonies to action: Addressing the culture of abuse in sport

The claim that abuse is the most challenging crime faced by sport was illustrated by horrific examples of sexual abuse and racism detailed in a challenging opening panel on the second day of Play the Game.

Participants heard stories of abuse but also about steps towards tackling an “insidious culture” that creates the “perfect storm” according to the opening speaker Katherine Craig, chief executive officer of Athlead.

“Some sports fetishise certain traits such as aggression and training on injury, but discourage empathy. This needs to change,” said Craig in her speech, which can be read in full here. 

“We need a safe, supportive culture off the pitch that will translate to one on the pitch.”

Culture was also the topic of Canadian journalist Laura Robinson's presentation about a horrific alleged sexual crime by hockey players in Canada in a presentation called 'Nobody forced her to do anything. If anything, we should put allegations on her f--k,”: The 2018 World Champion Junior Hockey Team, Sexual Consent and Canada’s Wilful Blindness.'

Robinson said that in 1996 when hockey player Sheldon Kennedy disclosed the abuse he endured by his coach, Canadians believed him because we knew he was telling the truth. However, the female narrative was not judged by the same standards.

“We have a culture in Canada of believing male testimony about male-on-male abuse,” said Robinson.

However, she continued, when women come forward about hockey's toxic culture, their credibility is questioned. The judge in this trial found the complainant to be unreliable and lacking credibility and acquitted all five players.

Joanna Maranhão, who swam at three Olympics for Brazil, presented detailed evidence of abuse with the results of a survey among 857 high-performance athletes in her country into self-reported experiences of interpersonal violence. The results showed high levels of both sexual, physical, and physiological violence. 

“Storytelling has its own power and strong evidence does too,” said Maranhão, who is now network co-ordinator at Brazil’s Sport & Rights Alliance.

Ways forward are offered by individuals and organisations

Responses to this torrent of abuse threatening to engulf sport were subsequently provided by other members of the panel.

One came from Joel Wilkinson, a former Australia Rules footballer, who was forced to quit due to incessant racial abuse and was attending Play the Game to speak about his experiences of abuse for the first time as an invited speaker in 15 years.

“I was racially abused once every three games and because I recorded it, I ended up blackballed and retired from the game at 23,” said Wilkinson, who then went on to briefly play American Football but again had to quit.

“Once Colin Kaepernick took the knee [in a protest against racism] that affected me. I became known as the Australian Kaepernick but got no support,” added Wilkinson, who quoted the 2025 Researchers in Australian Sport survey that found one in every three respondents experienced racism regularly.

As a response to his own experiences, Wilkinson has worked on finding a way to make it easier to report instances of racism or human rights abuse and  has built a system he calls Incident Guidance.

It is an international, web-based software infrastructure designed for enforceable reporting which ensures transparency, legal compliance and data analytics and can be customised to any sports organisation's policies, laws and legislations.

"Grievance and reporting mechanisms are the biggest need in the industry now. It's the actions of those who are abused that drive this work. Policies were only created because abuse occurred and because athletes and people spoke up," said Wilkinson.

Kirsty Burrows spoke about The International Olympic Committee’s attempts to tackle abuse in sport through The Safe Sport Regional Hub Initiative.

The hub is first being rolled out in Africa and the Pacific through a series of trials to work with existing initiatives.

“It’s easy to just open an office and stick a flag in it. We need to understand the unique cultural parts of each region before each hub starts, and we want to make sure these hubs maximise existing initiatives.

“I truly believe we can do good in sport if the right systems are in place,” Kirsty Burrows said.