Child Abuse in the Canadian and American Olympic Movement: Reforming Institutional Oversight of Amateur Sports

For many years, sexual abuse of young athletes quietly festered throughout amateur sport organizations in Canada and the United States. However, the veil has recently been lifted by the highly publicized testimonies of athletes sexually abused as minors by disgraced former USA Gymnastics (“USAG”) physician and Michigan State University professor Larry Nassar. The troubling details of these stories spurred investigations seeking to identify the causes behind the institutional failures to intervene in Nassar’s perpetration of abuse. The evidence gathered by these investigations alongside independent academic research reveal that unfettered predatory behaviour is a pervasive issue across the institutions responsible for overseeing the American Olympic movement and amateur sports. In addition, similar patterns of unchecked abuse have since been identified as plaguing Canadian Olympic and amateur sport organizations. This paper examines the institutional failures to address child sexual abuse occurring under the oversight of Olympic and amateur sport organizations in Canada and the United States. In both countries, efforts are currently underway to reform governance of these institutions to better protect minors participating in amateur sports. Accordingly, this paper also analyzes the policies implemented thus far and makes substantive recommendations on ideal federal level initiatives.

Child Abuse in the Canadian and American Olympic Movement: Reforming Institutional Oversight of Amateur Sports

For many years, sexual abuse of young athletes quietly festered throughout amateur sport organizations in Canada and the United States. However, the veil has recently been lifted by the highly publicized testimonies of athletes sexually abused as minors by disgraced former USA Gymnastics (“USAG”) physician and Michigan State University professor Larry Nassar. The troubling details of these stories spurred investigations seeking to identify the causes behind the institutional failures to intervene in Nassar’s perpetration of abuse. The evidence gathered by these investigations alongside independent academic research reveal that unfettered predatory behaviour is a pervasive issue across the institutions responsible for overseeing the American Olympic movement and amateur sports. In addition, similar patterns of unchecked abuse have since been identified as plaguing Canadian Olympic and amateur sport organizations. This paper examines the institutional failures to address child sexual abuse occurring under the oversight of Olympic and amateur sport organizations in Canada and the United States. In both countries, efforts are currently underway to reform governance of these institutions to better protect minors participating in amateur sports. Accordingly, this paper also analyzes the policies implemented thus far and makes substantive recommendations on ideal federal level initiatives.

The Problematic Experience of Players' Mutations Between Clubs: Discovering the Social Adaptability Skills Required

Objective: During their career, most players working in professional team sports move from club to club. These transitions are not always completely successful and could highly impact the route of the players' development. However, there is a lack of knowledge on the psychological processes involved when players encounter problems in adapting from one club to another. Thus, it was the aim of this study to identify the most difficult aspects of these transitions, as experienced by team sports players and the psychological skills that contribute to successful outcomes.Design and Method: The present study included twenty professional basketball players (aged between 20 and 36 years old; Mean = 26.05, SD = 4.12), who had played under different coaches (coach range 4–15; Mean = 8.65, SD = 2.92), and also played for different clubs (range 3–10; Mean = 5.35, SD = 2.08). They took part in retrospective interviews regarding their embedded experiences during club to club transitions. A situated E-approach was used to identify their problematic experiences, the adaptability skills and how they are applied during club mutations.Results and Conclusions: The identification of problematic experiences revealed seven components in relation to coaching (e.g., obeying orders, reduced play time), three components with teammates (e.g., respect), two components with the club (e.g., lack of support), and three components with family/friends (e.g., geographical constraints). Additionally, results indicated that the adaptability skills used during mutation are related to three groups namely mental skills, learning methods, and interpersonal skills. The results provide coaches, players, sports psychologists, and national sport organizations a set of issues for understanding the challenges players encounter when they move from one club to another.

Management of Loyalty and Its Main Antecedents in Sport Organizations: A Systematic Analysis Review

Sports management is booming, thanks to society’s growing interest in sports in general. This work provides an exhaustive review of the scientific literature of one of the variables most coveted by managers: loyalty. Antecedents positively related to loyalty are also conceptualized in this paper. The scientific literature search was limited to the last 15years to achieve a better fit with today’s context. The Web of Science database was the main search method used, along with other, secondary resources, for a total of 328 scientific articles obtained as a base for this review. The results of this study bring together the most representative data in a systematic review of the loyalty variable in the field of sports management: the antecedents of loyalty, the terms with the greatest presence in the theory, the most representative authors and sources of this topic, and so on. One of the most significant results obtained from the review of these 300 bibliographical references is that the factors to be borne in mind for marketing strategies in sports organizations are satisfaction, commitment, trust, and service quality. The literature reflects that these variables, present in studies on loyalty in general, can also be found in the literature on sports management – in particular, satisfaction and service quality. However, few papers include all these antecedents at once, making this an interesting field for future research.

Mental Health

This chapter examines contemporaneous theories, methodologies, and applied interventions specific to mental health in sport. First, contributions in the field are summarized, including mental health awareness programs designed to destigmatize mental health disorders in athletes, screening instruments experimentally developed to identify athletes who are likely to benefit from mental health services, assessment methods that have been psychometrically validated to assist intervention planning, interventions that have been indicated to assist engagement of athletes into mental health interventions, and prevention and intervention programs that have been shown to prevent or decrease the severity of mental health symptomology. Five seminal readings that are specific to advancing mental health in athletes are offered. These readings complement five questions that are presented to stimulate clinical and experimental growth in the mental health of athletes, including the scientific development of cost-effective methods of addressing mental health in sport organizations and disseminating evidence-supported mental health interventions in athletes.