Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

Reflections
Based on this study, the authors 8 recommended that a policy be developed
for educating and protecting people in sport from sexual harassment which should
help them to:
- Recognize, through education, what is meant by sexual harassment
- Protect athletes and coaches against sexual harassment
- Protect coaches against false allegations of sexual harassment
- Refer concerns about sexual harassment to the authorities
- Be confident that their concerns and reports will be taken seriously
- Ensure that coaches or athletes who are proved guilty of harassment are
sanctioned
This has partly been fulfilled by the fact in December 2006, about one year
after the study was first published, the Women’s Committee in the Czech Olympic
Committee developed an information brochure about sexual harassment which was
sent to all special federations that were members of the Czech Olympic Committee.
As indicated at the beginning of this chapter, we have not found any studies
about abusive experiences among Czech children in sport. But some of the
participants in our study were under 18 year of age, and this group was particularly
numerous at the elite level. The elite level athletes were also those who had
experienced the most sexual harassment compared with two other performance
groups. There is therefore a strong need in the Czech Republic for research which
focuses on the experiences of children in sport.
Notes
1. Benninger-Budel, C. and Hudecova, J, Violence against women in the Czech Republic, report
prepared by OMCT for the 28th Session of the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights,
2005.
2. Fasting, K. and Knorre, N., Women in Sport in the Czech Republic: The experience of female
athletes, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences & Czech Olympic Committee, Oslo and Prague, 2005.
3. Marksova-Tominova, M, Gender Equality and EU Accession: The Situation in the Czech Republic.
Information sheet from WIDE based on the Gender Assessment Report produced by Karat as a part of
the UNIFEM sponsored project “Gender and Economic Justice in European Accession and
Integration”, 2003.
4. WHO, Highlight on Women’s Health in the Czech Republic, WHO Regional Office for Europe,
Copenhagen, 2000.
5. Thoresen, T., ‘Fra spøk til alvor’ – Kommunikasjon mellom kvinnelige idrettsutøvere og deres
trenere – en kvalitativ studie, unpublished masters thesis, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo,
2007.
6. Thoresen, T., ibid.
7. Thoresen, T., op cit.
8. Fasting, K. and Knorre, N., ibid.
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