Overview
- The inaugural study surveyed more than 1,200 athletes and coaches across 64 sports to set a five-year baseline, with most participants saying sport is safe and fair.
- Verbal abuse and body shaming were the most commonly witnessed behaviours among athletes, who most often identified fellow athletes as offenders, while coaches most often cited parents for verbal abuse.
- Large shares said they would not report poor behaviour, including 46% for body shaming, 43% for racism, 40% for bullying and 38% for inappropriate sexual behaviour.
- Integrity risks extended beyond abuse, with 35% of athletes and 42% of coaches reporting bets on their own sport in the past year and only 51% of athletes likely to report suspicious doping.
- Child responses raised welfare concerns, with 21% of 15–18-year-olds reporting training to the point of distress or pain and the same share reporting aggressive yelling as punishment.