\u201cFor far too many Canadians, especially young athletes, sport has been an environment marked by abuse and insecurity, where they have not been adequately protected and where no one has been held accountable,\u201d the 950-page report stated.<\/p>\n
Cline, who is managing director of advocacy group Athletes Empowered, says the report validates experiences that athletes have faced for decades.<\/p>\n
Cline, 36, was an elite gymnast in her youth. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CGUVQ4ZCZJDUBNF7DO6BVKFGVA.jpg\")
Amelia Cline quit gymnastics at the age of 14. (Courtesy: Amelia Cline) Amelia Cline quit gymnastics at the age of 14. (Courtesy: Amelia Cline) <\/p>\n
She says she loved the sport but in the last three years of her career she trained under coaches \u201cwho were very psychologically and physically abusive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cline said the \u201cwinning-at-all-costs mentality,\u201d and the abuse she endured ultimately pushed her out of the sport at the age of 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realized I was going to either end up catastrophically injured because of the unsafe training environment or just debilitated by an eating disorder, or other mental health concerns as a result of the abuse that I was suffering, so I walked away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Among the 98 calls to action laid out in the report, the commission urges an overhaul of Canadian sport to create safe, inclusive and fun environments. It also calls for a centralized sport entity that would operate as a crown corporation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt won\u2019t be easy because it involves a lot of structural change and legislation and a different way of doing sport,\u201d said Carla Qualtrough, the former federal sports minister. \u201cBut I think if we do it right, it will result in a better governance and more safe and more aligned system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeping kids in the game<\/p>\n
The commission also calls for an immediate increase in funding to national sports organizations. Cline hopes that doesn\u2019t overshadow the rest of the findings. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus should be on grassroots and making sure that at the community level sport is safe, so that people are loving sport throughout their entire lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Cline says the positive impacts of sport, including health and movement, are often lost when the focus is solely on winning, noting there is value in sport even if athletes aren\u2019t competing at the highest level.<\/p>\n
Saskatoon Minor Hockey has a similar mindset. The organization says it measures the success of a season based on how many players return to the sport the following year.<\/p>\n
A large part of U11 coach Travis Kraushar\u2019s job is working on individual development, behaviours and habits. But at the end of the day, he wants to see players stick with hockey and work their way up through the age groups.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/VTX6PCO2NJBYZBHHGRKP3WVA3M.jpg\")
Amelia Cline quit gymnastics at the age of 14. (Courtesy: Amelia Cline) Amelia Cline quit gymnastics at the age of 14. (Courtesy: Amelia Cline) <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not going to make any NHLer at this level, but you can only prevent them (future NHLers) by not having the kid love the sport and want to come back the next year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kraushar acknowledged there can be challenges in sport when it comes to fostering a safe and inclusive environment. But he believes there are environments that exist \u201cwhere the kids flourish and they\u2019re comfortable enough, confident and believe in themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach of 14 years still remembers the positive impact his coaches made on him when he was younger, and he hopes to make sports just as memorable for his players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tell the kids \u2018a couple weeks after the game you don\u2019t remember the score. A year from now, you don\u2019t remember the wins and losses, but the lessons and the habits and the fun you have along the way stick with you,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Advocates hope the Future of Sport in Canada Commission\u2019s final report will help Canadians view sport in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":566971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[712,49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-568180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}