Exposing abuse of athletes

I listened to Dr. Patricia Leahy’s lecture on the "psychology of winning" at the Medicine Cinematorium of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Medicine Building the other day and was shocked to learn about the rampant abuse of athletes in several countries.

Dr. Leahy, who is the head of Athlete and Scientific Services at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, said a survey in Australia revealed a 30 percent incidence of sexual abuse among female athletes and 21 percent for males both on the elite and club levels. She described the situation as outrageous.

Dr. Leahy also pointed to emotional abuse of athletes as a problem. She explained that emotional abuse makes a victim vulnerable to confusion, fear and entrapment.

For years, Dr. Leahy said the situation went unabated with no protective legislation in place to shield athletes from abusive coaches, administrators and sports officials. Athletes were exposed to virtual torture and Dr. Leahy noted that the situation was widespread, citing cases in Israel, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. I imagine the situation was worse in Eastern European countries where athletes were slaves to a tyrannical system.

Worse was the finding that 45 percent of support staff, coaches, parents and others who make up the so-called "back-up system" knew of the abuses but did nothing to protect the victims. She called it the "bystander effect" where most silent onlookers keep quiet for fear of losing their jobs.

As a sports psychologist, it is Dr. Leahy’s crusade to make sports officials aware that they must create "an environment that facilitates elite levels of intensive training and commitment that supports gifted young athletes to meet the extreme challenges on the road to world-level success." She added that the environment must be inclusive, equitable and physically and psychologically safe.

Dr. Leahy said while athletes concentrate on their individual skills with the guidance of coaches, it is the responsibility of those who comprise the support system to focus on the systemic skills.

"In the past, we were blind to what went on because it seemed like we had a perfect sports system in Australia," she explained. "We won medals all around. Then, we realized the flaws in the system, the abuses that victimized athletes. There were no criminal or background checks on coaches. We had systemic problems. But now, we are clear about ethics. Our guidelines and policies are clear as to how parents, coaches and sports officials interact with athletes."

Dr. Leahy said it is important to foster a philosophy of winning that creates an environment of excellence, allows athletes the opportunity to compete with confidence and maximizes their ability to be the best they can be. She said mental toughness is as crucial as physical ability in developing a champion athlete.

Buried in the darkest corridors of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex are lurid stories of sexual and emotional abuse of Filipino athletes. There are disgusting tales of pretty athletes subjected to sexual molestation by coaches and sports officials who threaten to kick them out of the national pool if they expose the shenanigans. There are stories of athletes mentally tortured by heartless coaches who know no better than to use fear as a motivating tool.

On the field of competition, an athlete’s frame of mind could mean the difference between winning or losing.

Dr. Leahy’s lecture was a timely and relevant call to coaches and sports officials to strengthen the support system for athletes whose ability to excel depends in large part to a positive mental focus.

Dr. Leahy and Hong Kong Sports Institute manager of the Strength and Conditioning Department Michael Tse were the foreign speakers in the UST College of Rehabilitation Services two-day seminar which featured lectures on the ethical issues in sports by Fr. Jerry Manlangit, sports talent identification by UST Sports Science Department chair Joy Reyes and the biomechanics of knee injuries by Dean Consuelo Suarez who said health professionals, teachers and coaches should explore ways to prevent injuries and help out athletes instead of viewing them as patients in a post-competition framework.

There were also parallel demonstrations and workshops in the seminar program. Facilitators included Purefoods basketball team physical therapist Roy Lazaro and Adidas SportsKamp chief physical therapist Leomil Adriano for the injury sessions.

The objectives of the seminar, dubbed "Science in Sports–Towards the Competitive Edge," were to highlight the role of sports science in the holistic preparation of an athlete for a competition, to update the participants on the current trends in resistance training, to elucidate the significance of sports talent identification, to suggest innovative techniques in motivating an athlete for optimum performance, to explain biomechanically and anatomically how common knee injuries occur, to give a working knowledge on the proper nutrition before, during and after a competition and to present current therapeutic exercises in the management of ankle injuries.

The UST College of Rehabilitation Services offers research, training and consultancy on aerobic capacity testing, sport-specific physiologic testing, fitness assessment for wellness, sports performance evaluation, ergonomics, sports talent identification and sports nutrition.