The human cost of athlete abuse
It doesn’t just stop. There is no automatic or obvious finish line. For athletes who have been through the trauma of abuse, the physical and emotional ripple effects can spread far and wide.
Someone who knows this all too well is Mhairi Maclennan. The British international was one of a number of athletes who were sexually abused by John Lees, whose coaching licence was revoked in 2021 after he was found guilty on five charges by an independent appeal committee and admitted two others.
Though the case is now closed, Maclennan admits its impacts are still very much being felt. As she puts it, someone who is subjected to such an ordeal tends to respond in one of two ways – either by going off the rails entirely or “strapping themselves on to the rails”.
The latter choice comes about because that sensation of having no control in one aspect of life – in this case a period abuse – drives the athlete to focus on controlling what they can to the Nth degree and, as Maclennan says: “Becoming obsessive about living a very rigid lifestyle.”
The 28-year-old took that path. As a result she developed “neurotic behaviour”, disordered eating and it was only relatively recently that she was able to make the correlation between her past experiences and repeatedly being laid low by chest infections in recent years. She describes having had “only” one this year as being a real sign of progress.
At the root of it all was the abuse she suffered and it’s these wider implications that are the focus of a new campaign being launched by Kyniska Advocacy, the safe sport campaign group co-founded two years ago by Maclennan and fellow athlete Kate Seary.
The aim is to raise awareness of the fact that all isn’t suddenly fine once a verdict is reached or a decision is made – and that athletes who go through these experiences need much greater, better longer-term support.
“In the past few years there’s been an increased awareness globally and nationally about abuse in sport, abusive coaches, unhealthy training environments and more athletes have been speaking up,” says Maclennan.
“It’s been great to see that but we also want to talk about the bigger picture and to give more context of what that whole experience and process looks like to hopefully help some people who are experiencing what we would call associated side-effects or associated consequences of abuse.
“Our opinion is that there's not enough of a focus on the whole holistic picture around abuse in sport and also how that person moves on from that experience and that time in their lives, particularly if they choose to stay in the sport. It’s about how to manage that return in a healthy way.
“We’re calling the campaign The Human Impact of Abuse in Sport, and it will also include those who are not necessarily direct victims, but might have been in a coaching group that has been dismantled as a result of someone’s behaviour or have known friends who've gone through it and just dealing with that kind of breakdown of your understanding and assumptions about particular dynamics within your sport.
“It might be there's a coach that's been lauded and celebrated and then, actually, it turns out that they get banned or investigated because of abuse claims. How do you manage that as an athlete and how do you perceive it? Does it impact you and in what way does that impact you?”
It’s the level of support in terms of absorbing such an impact that Maclennan believes is in greatest need of attention.
“With the way sport is set up in the UK, we're not really sure where that responsibility of that athlete's welfare and aftercare lies,” she says. “In athletics you’ve got the devolved nations, which is probably what the grassroots is most affiliated with, but it might be UK Athletics conducting the investigation so then who is responsible for that athlete welfare?
“I think that's quite often where cracks appear and there may be not somebody regularly checking in with that athlete. There’s no signposting or offers of mental health support during an investigation. Sometimes I've seen cases of athletes only being offered mental health support at the conclusion of the case. It's positive they're getting that offer but it should be coming when they're first coming through the door.”
She adds: “What support are we offering and who's keeping track of these athletes that have been through these types of experiences? Who’s helping guide them – not just in the months, but the years following that kind of experience? I think we need to do a better job of that and I think we need a sort of system tracker of athletes who've been through these processes, which we don't have at the moment.”
Ideally, Maclennan would like to see some of the responsibility for that care to be removed from the governing bodies. Acknowledging that resources and funding across the sport are so tight, she contends they already simply “trying to do too much”.
“There are a few conflicts of interest if the national governing bodies are providing the support service and also conducting the investigation and also trying to support the alleged perpetrator,” she says. “There are a lot of crossed wires.
“I do think there needs to be some kind of official service set up and taking away some of that responsibility from national governing bodies is a good idea because they're resource and time poor. That is not a criticism – national governing bodies don't have enough money to fund what they have to do.”
Kyniska does already provide a support service but Maclennan admits it only has “limited capacity”. Progress is being made, just not at a rate which is quite fast enough. Now the aim is to start a meaningful conversation and to build momentum around creating something with a greater scope to make an even bigger impact.
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