Experiences of Participants

In 2024, a survey of 1,200 Australian athletes and coaches from all levels of sport found that: ¹⁵

• 88% of athletes and 87% of coaches felt Australian sport was safe and fair for everyone.
• 44% of athletes and 60% of coaches were confident of locating their sport’s integrity policies.
• In the previous 12 months, participants were more likely to report witnessing poor behaviour than experiencing it. Athletes most reported experiencing body shaming (7%) and verbal abuse (7%), while coaches reported experiencing more verbal abuse (17%) and bullying (11%).
• Compared to the average for all athletes, national and international level athletes were more likely to report having a coach aggressively yell at them (36% v 21% avg) and/or belittle, humiliate, threaten or frighten them (26% v 10% avg).

In 2025, a representative sample of around 1,000 Australian young people aged 12 to 18 years found: ¹⁶

• 93% felt safe in sport always or most of the time.
• 12% of those who had previously engaged in non-playing roles in sport had stopped because they experienced abuse/lack of respect by athletes, coaches, parents, or spectators.
• 27% reported witnessing bullying in their sport, and around 10% reported feeling bullied as a reason for dropping out of a sport.
• 92% said they would be willing to report inappropriate behaviour to someone they trusted, most frequently a parent or coach.

A 2023 Australian study, based on a retrospective survey of 886 community sport participants found that: ¹⁷

• 82% reported experiencing interpersonal violence (IV) in sport as a child: 76% psychological, 66% physical, and 38% sexual violence.
• 73% reported experiencing IV perpetrated by a peer, 60% by a coach, and 35% by a parent.
• Participants' age, gender, having a disability, non-heterosexual orientation, and/or frequency of participation were all associated with experiencing violence in sport during their childhood.