Part 3 GLOBAL ISSUES: HARASSMENT AND ABUSE RESEARCH

elittling, humiliating, threatening and shouting. These negative behaviours were
considered to be part of their coaches’ day-to- day coaching methodologies.
Athletes reported the occurrence of these behaviours independent of the gender
of their coach, or of the sport participated in or whether team or individual. The
athletes reported a range of residual emotional problem symptoms many of
which stayed with them long after they stopped competing. This was typified in
the following responses from the athletes who stated:
I was meant to be one of the best but I never felt like this, I always felt like
I was rubbish and worthless generally.
All it did was to destroy me as a person to make me feel worthless.
I gave up because I had no confidence, because she constantly told me
that I was crap and worthless all the time. I believed this and it carried on
into general life and I am now scared of rejection, failure because of the
things she did.
Interestingly, all the athletes reported that the behaviour of their coach
changed once they had been identified as elite. A typical example of this was
reported by a footballer when he commented:
He became a power maniac … because I was good he thought it was all
his doing.
These athletes reported having to cope with the pressures of training and
competing at the highest level in a climate of sustained attacks on their selfesteem
when they were still vulnerable children. But the behaviour of their
coaches went unchallenged, as they were all successful athletes. The outside
world viewed them as victorious achievers and, as such, they went unnoticed as
potentially being at risk.
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