Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

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“Repeated unwanted sexually suggestive glances, comments, teasing and jokes about your body, your clothes, your private life, your sexual orientation etc.” “Being the subject of humiliating treatment or situations which have undermined your self-respect and/or had a negative influence on your sport performance.” The athletes experienced the last two forms more often from authority figures in sport than from peer athletes. The opposite was true for the first two categories. As many as 62% of those athletes who had experienced sexual harassment and abuse from peer athletes had experienced ridicule. It was also only ridicule that had been experienced much more often by the athletes than the controls. The controls had also experienced much more serious forms of sexual harassment than the athletes, such as ‘forced into sexual behaviour’ and ‘rape and attempted rape’. vi In summarizing the results from this survey the following groups seemed to be particularly at risk: The oldest athletes who had participated in World Championships and/or Olympic Games. Among this group as many as 39% had experienced sexual harassment and abuse in a sport environment Among the youngest athletes with eating disorders 30% had experienced sexual harassment from some authority figures in sport. As mentioned above, the second part of the study was qualitative interviews with 25 female athletes who had marked that they had been sexually harassed by an authority figure in sport. These athletes represented 15 different sport disciplines and more than half practised for 16 to 20 hours per week or more and 15 of them had competed in the Olympic Games, world championships or world cup. The interviews revealed that most of them had 20
een harassed and abused by a coach. Though they were 15 to 33 years of age when they were interviewed, it turned out that their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse very often had happened when they were children, i.e. around 14-16 year of age. The main result from these interviews can be summarized as follows: In examining the personal responses of the athletes to their experiences of sexual harassment, the athletes’ emotional reactions were disgust, fear, irritation, and anger when the sexually harassing incidents occurred. Concerning behavioural responses they reacted with passivity, avoidance, direct confrontation, and confrontation with humour. They therefore demonstrated individual, internally focused responses to the harassment rather than collective, externally focused ones. vii The consequences of the incidents of sexual harassment that were reported were generally negative, but some also reported that their experiences of sexual harassment had had no consequences for them. Thinking about the incidents, a destroyed relationship with the coach, and more negative view of men in general were the most often negative consequences mentioned. In addition, a surprising number had chosen to move to a different sport or to drop out of elite sport altogether because of the harassment viii The last major findings from this part of the study are about the characteristics of the harassing coach. How are harassing coaches characterized by their victims, that is, the athletes themselves? Do they demonstrate specific kinds of behaviours? This was the purpose of another article that came out from these interviews. The results produced a sport typology that consists of three main types: 1) The Flirting-Charming Coach, 2) The Seductive Coach and 3) The Authoritarian Coach. The data further suggest that, rather than being one-type only, sexually harassing coaches select from a repertoire that may include several different harassment scripts. They vary these according to situations 21
Page 1 and 2: Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AN
Page 3 and 4: It was in the middle of these early
Page 5 and 6: more likely to be harassed and/or a
Page 7 and 8: The survey revealed a considerable
Page 9 and 10: 8. Kirby, S.L. and Greaves, L. ‘F
Page 11 and 12: Research clearly indicates that rel
Page 13 and 14: performance. Items thrown by the co
Page 15 and 16: High Low Figure 3.1 Athletes’ exp
Page 17 and 18: 3.3 Sexual harassment and abuse in
Page 19: variables:1) formation of the sport
Page 23 and 24: The results show that 30% of the st
Page 25 and 26: 3.4 Sexual abuse of athletes in org
Page 27 and 28: conversely, to present the perpetra
Page 29 and 30: staff or volunteers who were not as
Page 31 and 32: 3.5 Sexual harassment and abuse in
Page 33 and 34: automatically mean that he/she will
Page 35 and 36: councilors of NOC*NSF. Solid resear
Page 37 and 38: non-aggressors. Such variables are
Page 39 and 40: 3.6 Risks and opportunities for sex
Page 41 and 42: under the three major headings of
Page 43 and 44: These findings indicated that clubs
Page 45 and 46: Whilst 8% of sports clubs knew of s
Page 47 and 48: 3.7 Sexual harassment among female
Page 49 and 50: slapped on the face, head or ears b
Page 51 and 52: When I was not getting as good achi
Page 53 and 54: 3.8 Unwanted sexual experiences in
Page 55 and 56: 18-21 years old). The VUBrussels sa
Page 57 and 58: Coach behaviour Perceptions Experie
Page 59 and 60: However, KULeuven students’ perce
Page 61 and 62: 7. Leahy, T., Pretty, G., and Tenen
Page 63 and 64: Nineteen male swimming coaches part
Page 65 and 66: this study. 14 It is important to n
Page 67 and 68: Finally, it is important to note th
Page 69 and 70: 3.10 What price gold medals? An inv
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The research that supported and und
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symptoms. Lastly, this will only oc
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The results from this study may lea
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i NIF, Årsrapport 2006 - Norges Id
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Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

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