Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

When I was not getting as good achievements we both would like to, I would
hear comments like I can’t run, or that I'm clumsy. Also I heard from him that I
should put off some weight and what I should eat or shouldn't eat. And then off
course he tried to seduce me as he tried to seduce many other women. (Silje)
And very often we go to tournaments, and there the coach and the male
players provoke various games with sexual contact. For example, a game
called "spin the bottle", where you sit in a group, and you spin a bottle, and
where the bottle points the person is suppose to take off a piece of clothing…”
(Benedicte)
We had the same locker room as our coaches. When you are 12-13 years I
don’t think it is ok. Many jokes were told when we where changing, and many
with a sexual content. When you are 13 years of age that is not fun. --- It
happened that we often had ’common showering days’. The coaches suggest
then that we shower together and that they wash us girls on the back. This
happen quite often. Or they ask if it they can shower together with us. (Mette)
According to Thoresen the transition from the pinching and hugging to a
sexual relationship seemed to be quite short, particularly for younger athletes. 7 Many
of them had either had, or knew about others who had had, a sexual relationship with
their coaches that started when they were 14-17 years of age. Mette, for example,
told us about a relationship that had lasted for eight or nine years but which had
begun when the girls were 14 years of age.
Almost of all the participants mentioned that a sexual relationship between a
coach and an athlete was quite common. Many participants also mentioned that
many of the coaches they knew only had had a relationship to those athletes they
were coaching, and that they often switched which of the girls on the team or in the
club they had sex with. It also seemed to be not uncommon that the coaches had sex
with several girls or young women at the same time. Felica said, for example:
This man has only been together with those girls he has coached. I don’t know
about any other relationships that he had had. Before the one he lives with
now, he lived with one of the other girls he coached.
51
51