Around 40 per cent of athletes would not call out poor behaviour like racism, bullying and discrimination, according to a report from Sport Integrity Australia (SIA).<\/p>\n
The Positive Behaviours in Sport Study \u2014 surveying more than 1,200 community and professional athletes and coaches \u2014 found 46 per cent of athletes would not report body shaming, 43 per cent racism, 40 per cent bullying, and 38 per cent inappropriate sexual behaviour.<\/p>\n
Athletes said they often would not think the behaviour was serious enough or believed their reports would not be taken seriously.<\/p>\n
“This is a call to action for all of us in sport,” SIA chief executive Sarah Benson wrote in the report’s introduction.<\/p>\n
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Sport Integrity Australia said the findings were a reminder of how hard it is to call out poor behaviour. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n
“We must continue to evolve our education and communication so that every participant understands what and how to report, and to ensure they feel empowered to speak up.”<\/p>\n
Calling out poor behaviour ‘tricky’<\/p>\n
SIA acting head of sport engagement Alexis Cooper said the study revealed how hard it could be for people to call out poor behaviour.<\/p>\n
“The findings show that speaking up as an athlete in particular is really difficult sometimes and can be really tricky,” Cooper said.<\/p>\n
“It’s not just true of sport. I think speaking up in the workplace can be difficult [and] speaking with friends and family can be difficult.”<\/p>\n
Researchers surveyed 879 athletes and 325 coaches for the report.<\/p>\n
Sideline parents asked to ‘watch, enjoy, keep your mouth shut’<\/a><\/p>\n What might feel like a helpful cheer or a warning against the mistake of last week’s game can take the fun out of a kids’ game of football.<\/p>\n Of those, 81 per cent played community sport, 10 per cent were state athletes and 9 per cent national\/international athletes.<\/p>\n The survey also captured responses from 66 children between 15 and 18, of whom 21 per cent said they had been forced to train to the point of distress or pain.<\/p>\n The same percentage of children said they had been yelled at in an aggressive manner as a method of discipline or punishment.<\/p>\n Cooper said despite widespread coverage of child abuse in sport, old-fashioned notions were still prevalent in Australia.<\/p>\n “[Things like] people saying ‘no pain, no gain,'” she said.<\/p>\n Sarah Benson said the report was a “call to action”. (AAP: Sport Integrity Australia)<\/p>\n “Some of these things don’t change overnight and it takes a bit longer for expectations and standards to really sink in.”<\/p>\n The number of athletes who said they witnessed poor behaviour (33 per cent) was more than four times higher than those who said they had experienced it (7 per cent).<\/p>\n Most commonly, that abuse came from other athletes.<\/p>\n Stream End Game with Tony Armstrong on ABC iview<\/a><\/p>\n Tony Armstrong tackles Australia’s overdue reckoning with racism in sport with the help of some of its biggest sports stars.<\/p>\n “I think there sometimes can be a perception that it’s OK to [verbally abuse people] in sport, even if it might not be OK anywhere else in life for society or communities,” Cooper said.<\/p>\n “So for us there’s a big education push to say the expectations of behaviour in sport are the same as anywhere else \u2014 you don’t verbally abuse other people in life and the same goes in sport.”<\/p>\n Verbal abuse most common<\/p>\n The most common forms of adverse behaviour were verbal abuse and body shaming, which 7 per cent of athletes said they had experienced.<\/p>\n Among coaches, 17 per cent said they had experienced verbal abuse.<\/p>\n SIA said the study established a baseline for tracking behaviours and attitudes to identify trends and address risks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n