More concerns about coaching behaviour, this time with Swimming. 

I read a news article this week from the BBC about yet another example of coach behaviour which has driven some athletes to develop eating disorders. Sadly these news stories are occurring on an all too often basis now, one part of me think that this is actually good whereby athletes are now finding their voices and are being heard, but the other side of me thinks that yet again another tragedy is unfolding as the impact of these types of abuses can be lifelong, debilitating, demoralising and can ultimately lead to death.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64826839

How on earth can anyone justify behaviours that cause a fellow human being, and all too often they are children, to develop eating disorders all in the pursuit of a winning mentality. In the article Cassie Patten who won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics describes how she felt like a “commodity” rather than a person by her coaches, I also note the word coaches rather than a coach.  

How did these coaches develop these types of training behaviours and who is responsible for their guidance and support for these methods, were they too focused on winning and how were they allowed to develop such a toxic culture in swimming clubs around the country as its clear from the article that more clubs are implicated in such abusive behaviours towards their athletes.  

We also note that today (9-3-23) a renowned swimming coach has been banned from teaching swimming for 5 years, this related to Brian McGuiness from a swimming club in Worcestershire.  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-64799165

The lead investigator stated that “he is unsuitable to work with or have unsupervised access to children within the sport of swimming.” How was this behaviour be allowed to develop in a place where children should be safe! During lockdown 1 I wated a webinar featuring Dame Tanni Grey Thompson, in the webinar she stated that being an elite athlete is not for the “faint hearted” as you must push yourself harder than ever before to gain success, but this does not mean that any athlete should be abused to the point of developing an eating disorder.  

Another question to be asked is who were those enablers who allowed him to develop these poor practices, bully and intimidate children and develop a culture of fear that parents and other committee members were not able to speak up, whilst action has been taken against McGuiness what has happened to those that allowed this level of abuse to go unchallenged for years.  Until those enablers face consequences I fear that another McGuiness will be waiting in the wings to step in, the focus of every enquiry has been on the perpetrator but now we must surely start looking at those enablers in clubs who facilitate abuse but invariably get away “scot-free.” The first swimming scandal in the UK that hit the national headlines was Paul Hickson back in 1995, and yet today in 2023 we have more scandals in swimming.  

A book that has influenced my thinking is Professor Amos Guioras book “Armies of Enablers.” This book looks at those who enable abuse to occur in many US based sports and lists the testimonies of those who were abused by their sports coach, all who were interviewed bemoaned those who had a duty of care towards them but looked the other way, Professor Guiora proposes legislation should be enacted that puts a legal duty on those bystanders to intervene in any case or situation where someone is a risk of abuse. I would fully recommend this book to anyone working within the safeguarding in sport environment as it may influence your thinking about those enablers who allow abuse to occur, know that its abusive behaviour and that they should do something about it. When there is more focus on these individual or groups then toxic cultures that have been allowed to develop can be firmly challenged which may help prevent further abuses to occur such as the ones reported this week in the sport of swimming.   

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As always the NWG Networks sports team are happy to talk to anyone who may have concerns about a child or in response to this article, please do contact any of the team on the details below. 

                                                                   Kevin Murphy  
                                                        Safeguarding in Sport Team 

                                                                 NWG Network 

                                                           Office: 01332 585371 

                                                           Mobile 07399 449045 

                                                    Email:  [email protected]  

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