Taking action against the dark side of sports: creating resilience through athlete empowerment

15:00 - 16:00 Taking action against the dark side of sports: creating resilience through athlete empowerment

Language: Dutch (English on request)
Location: Carre 2K

This session aims to demonstrate how the perceived power of the sports industry leaves athletes open to transgressive behaviour. Within sports, a culture has been created in which perceived power is considered a part of a person's identity and then misuse this power (e.g., a coach’s dominance over a submissive athlete). These perceived relationships of power, though not reflecting the true situation, are seen and accepted as the truth and those involved are acting according to this perception. As a result, the widespread acceptance of the misuse of power in sports promotes transgressive behaviours and this is in our view erodes the societal value of sports. In other words, the current culture in sports is putting the resilience of athletes at risk. Finally, we will discuss in this session why collective action by the sports community is necessary to strengthen the resilience of athletes and create safe sports for them.

N.H.M.J. van Veldhoven (Nicolette)
Honorary Professor

Nicolette Schipper-van Veldhoven is professor of Sports, Risk & Safety within the faculty of EEMCS and BMS. Her research focuses on creating a positive and safe sports climate within (organised) sports, especially for youngsters.

M.J.M. Haandrikman MSc (Marleen)
Lecturer & researcher (external PhD)

Marleen Haandrikman is a lecturer and researcher in the Psychology of Conflict, Risk and Safety group of the BMS faculty. Her PhD research focuses on the protection of young athletes at all levels of the sports community.