Safe sport
What Is Safeguarding in Sport? The IOC Statements and the International Safeguards
Safeguarding in sport is the set of rules, procedures and everyday practices that protect participants, and children above all, from harm, and that make sure concerns are handled properly when they arise. In UK statutory guidance, quoted in the Whyte Review of gymnastics, safeguarding children means protecting them from maltreatment, preventing impairment of their mental and physical health or development, ensuring they grow up with safe and effective care, and acting so that they have the best outcomes. International sport bodies have since built two reference points on top of such definitions: the IOC consensus statements on abuse and interpersonal violence, and the International Safeguards for Children in Sport.
What does safeguarding cover in practice?
Safeguarding is wider than responding to an allegation. The Whyte Review, an independent report into British gymnastics published in 2022, looked at safeguarding together with education, complaints handling and policy implementation, describing these as critical functions that rarely attract recognition when they work well.
The review also separates two questions that are easy to blur. Whether alleged misconduct by a club coach should affect membership of a national governing body is a matter for that body, while the question of employment is for the individual club. Safeguarding systems therefore depend on clear roles between clubs, governing bodies and, where children are at risk of serious harm, social services and the police.
What did the 2016 IOC consensus statement establish?
The International Olympic Committee consensus statement on harassment and abuse (non-accidental violence) in sport appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2016 (volume 50, issue 17, pages 1019 to 1029), written by a group of 13 authors. It built on the IOC's 2007 statement on sexual harassment and abuse by adding evidence on psychological, physical and neglect-based abuse.
The statement describes safe sport as an environment that is respectful, fair and free from violence. It identifies elite athletes, athletes with disabilities, children and LGBT athletes as facing the highest risk, concludes that psychological abuse underlies all other forms, and notes that athletes themselves can be perpetrators. It also points to secrecy and deference to authority as conditions that let abuse persist, and calls for a coordinated, multi-agency response.
What changed in the 2024 IOC consensus statement?
The 2016 statement lists the forms harm can take: physical contact, verbal or non-contact behaviour, online abuse, neglect, bullying and hazing. A legal commentary by the Canadian firm Aird & Berlis, summarising the statement, reports that abuse can cause long-term physical and mental harm and is associated with impaired performance, doping, cheating and higher dropout rates, and that organisations sometimes overlook it from fear of reputational damage, ignorance, silence or collusion.
A new statement, titled IOC consensus statement: interpersonal violence and safeguarding in sport, was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in late November 2024 (volume 58, issue 22, pages 1322 to 1344). A 15-member expert panel ran a scoping review and voted on recommendations using a Delphi protocol, with 80% agreement set in advance as the threshold for consensus.
Of 48 voting statements, 43 reached consensus: 5 overarching, 33 topical and 5 actionable guidelines. The authors argue for a whole-of-system approach and describe safe sport settings as athlete-centred, built on mutual care and healthy relationships, and measuring how well prevention and response work. A Stanford Medicine summary reports a best estimate that 44% to 86% of girls and women in sport have at least one such experience, and notes that most of the reviewed literature came from North America and Europe.
The same summary says people who face marginalisation are at higher risk, that risk is especially high when athletes are about to start performing at an elite level, and that perpetrators do not fit a single profile: they can be coaches, medical staff, parents or other athletes. Its recommendations include writing safeguarding and well-being requirements into coaches' contracts and organisational policies.
What are the International Safeguards for Children in Sport?
The International Safeguards for Children in Sport set out measures that organisations providing sport to children and young people should put in place. Unicef coordinated them, and they draw on international declarations, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, relevant legislation, government guidance and existing child protection standards. The accompanying implementation guides were based on the experience of more than 50 organisations that piloted the safeguards.
There are eight safeguards, which move from a written policy through to ongoing review:
- Developing your policy
- Procedures for responding to safeguarding concerns
- Advice and support
- Minimising risks to children
- Guidelines for behaviour
- Recruiting, training and communicating
- Working with partners
- Monitoring and evaluating
