SafeSport
Issues in the sport of tennis
SafeSport
Coaches who win have an extra layer of protection from consequences, as their behavior may be excused or even celebrated as the reason for winning.
“It became this fixation that I would hold on to every single good thing that was said about me and try to shake off any of the bad things, and that is a very, very toxic environment to be in.”
Two women, Caroline Ullring and Karen Clark, reveal their traumatic experiences of sexual assault by the same tennis coach, Lew Gerrard, highlighting issues of silence, trauma, and shared survival in the sports community.
LinkTwo women lived with the secret of
an assault by the same tennis coach.
Then they found each other
Matthew Futterman
Two major tenets of sports participation — unquestioningly accepting authority and relentlessly pursuing winning — lower the barriers to resisting inappropriate behavior or even recognizing that it is inappropriate in the first place.
It means truly setting the tone for the sport or club’s culture from the top down and doing more work to educate everyone on the signs and effects of abuse while simultaneously shifting towards a healthier model of coaching. It means stronger vetting procedures with firm zero tolerance policies on what is and isn’t acceptable. And it means being wi
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