“I went from being mentally healthy to ill.” “I got reoccurring infections and went to hospital constantly.”“The coach’s constant berating regarding what we were eating and having to do weigh-ins in front of everyone made me develop an eating disorder.” “I do not know how I will ever trust anyone ever again.” “Ultimately, all my trust in sport has diminished significantly. I see it as a tarnished experience, a tarnished career.” “I would be terrified if I had children who wanted to be elite athletes. I’d deter them from ever doing so.”According to Unesco, more than one in five (21 per cent) of professional women athletes have experienced sexual abuse as a child in sport — almost double the rate of male athletes. Such a statistic often provokes a familiar gamut of responses from those who read it, from shock, disgust and anger to a debilitating sense of helplessness. Such brevity, however, is not a luxury for those who have experienced such abuse.That is the crux of a new report, I don’t know how I will ever trust anybody again, which draws on interviews with 11 former elite female athletes across six sports in the United Kingdom. It examines the long-term impact of women survivors of six forms of coaching maltreatment (emotional abuse, manipulation, ethical maltreatment, physical harm, discrimination, and sexual abuse).Conducted by Kyniska Advocacy’s co-founder Kate Seary, and well-being and performance psychologist Natacha Lazareff, in conjunction with Professor Leanne Norman, a professor of women in sport at Loughborough University and Dr Chloe Woodhead, a researcher in sport, exercise and health psychology at Leeds Beckett University, the report is thought to be the most comprehensive study of maltreatment in women’s sport yet. Key findings include maltreatment being normalised behaviour abetted by structural and cultural conditions across the UK sporting landscape, including gendered power dynamics, the absence or inefficiency of safeguarding mechanisms and a system that “rewards sacrifice and suffering” over wellbeing. The long-term impact on athletes’ mental and physical health, with their relationships, a distancing from sport altogether, and financial and time costs are all noted.“We’re finding years after, lots of survivors will talk about their life before abuse happened and their life after,” says Seary, a former Welsh indoor 1500m champion. “That doesn’t mean you can’t heal and you can’t go on that journey to having a full life. But the damage doesn’t stay contained in the time that the abuse happened.”While previous research has helped establish an acceptance that abuse occurs in sport, Norman says the report’s inclusion of athletes across multiple sport disciplines, as well as a focus on gender-specific abuse, helps it cut deeper. The Women’s Super League is cited as an example of a governing body proactively addressing the structural and cultural issues enabling abusers (Kya Banasko/Getty Images)“The scale of [abuse] surprised me with this research,” she adds. “It showed that there are systemic issues that are complicit in continuing abuse through either silence or actively supporting the coaches.”All athletes who participated in the research — and are quoted above — remained anonymous, with their experiences collated into collective, generalised vignettes owing to fears of retaliation by those in charge. The research demands urgent action from governing bodies, policymakers, and performance sport organisations, including extending support beyond the point of retirement, embedding gender-informed safeguarding, funding trauma-informed services for former athletes and making prevention a core priority in safeguarding reform. In the UK, it is a criminal offence for someone in a recognised position of authority (such as teachers, social workers, or care workers) to engage in sexual activity with anyone under 18 who is in their care, but the report calls on sports governing bodies to lift the age to 25 while mandating the disclosure and scrutiny of coach-athlete romantic or sexual relationships.