Sexual violence: "Athletes' careers take precedence over their protection"

How should a coach behave with his athletes? The issue has taken on a much heavier meaning since the accusations of rape by Sarah Abitbol against her former coach and the release of speech on sexual violence in sport.

Friday, the Ministry of Sports brings together the federations to address in particular the subject. Among the speakers, the sociologist Philippe Liotard, member of the Laboratory on Vulnerabilities and Innovation in Sport. Who advocates for enhanced support for coaches and volunteers.

How can we describe the coach-coach relationship?

PHILIPPE LIOTARD. This expression, which is widely used in sport, is already problematic. Symbolically, it translates a type of passive relationship where the athlete is the one on whom we act, who would be passive. We must already get out, in words, of this relationship which makes the coach the all powerful reference.

How does this translate?

The coach benefits from a confidence based on his technical or tactical skills. During a session, he benefits from a delegation of authority from the parents of a young athlete. But it will often spill over into discipline and behavior. It is when you leave this framework that it becomes problematic. A coach who tells a young girl not to eat such food, he is no longer a coach, but a dietitian. The abuse of power begins there.

Are these abuses of power more developed in individual sports?

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No, they are found in football or rugby, where there are humiliating behaviors for members of the group. A coach who judges it normal to yell or insult his players after a failed half-time, it already reflects a culture of mistreatment. Shouting already means that we have built a relationship where the threat would create dynamism. However, it does not work in the long term. If sportspeople tolerate this, it is because they think that what they are subjected to is ultimately about performance.

What makes these abuses accepted by many?

We can see very well in the numerous testimonies of sexual violence. The more the person has appropriated this performance objective, the more difficult it is to backtrack. She will say things like You have to bite the bullet , that's the price to pay , when we justify unacceptable things. They think that if they denounce what they are going through, their career is ruined. This takes precedence over its own protection.

Do these humiliations create a breeding ground for sexual violence?

The grip is not a person related to another person. It is always in a specific context, with abuses of power or confidence and conditions that make this violence possible. Between courses, the return of training, or trips to go to competitions, sport produces spaces conducive to these attacks, even more than the school world. A young girl who goes to the gym is not vulnerable in itself, but she is because she is exposed to the risk of meeting a sex offender, of being the victim of a breach of trust by a technician who calls her back or to be isolated in a hope pole hundreds of kilometers from her parents' home. And the problem in these cases is that the reference person is the coach. And what can we do when it is he who abuses his power and commits this violence?

Its ubiquity is a problem?

Yes. And then, the foundation of the relationship ... The coach is someone we admire, whom we want to please when we are a young sportsman. When he begins to approach, the seduction has already operated. It's I'm happy with you, I'm showing you , while he's committing sexual violence. And when they are turned away, they will be very hard in retaliation training.

Many coaches of young women are men. What role does this play in the report?

Sportswomen undergo a triple domination: that of the coach over the athlete, that of the adult over the youngster and that of the man over the woman. Of course, sexual violence is committed by gay men or lesbian women. But the majority of technical executives being men, they take care of everyone. Who trains women at the highest level? Men. The distribution of power in sport is gendered.

What must be done to develop this relationship?

Work at all levels. Already on the tracing of sex offenders, to prevent a person sentenced in Rennes from going to train in Lyon. We must also train all managers, but also volunteers. And ask the right questions. What girl-boy relationship do we value? What vision of masculinity and femininity do we want? We must create an egalitarian climate where we will strengthen everyone's vigilance. In concrete terms, boys must stop finding it normal for a trainer to comment on the buttocks of the girls with whom they play sports. Or that when a girl stretches, her coach compares that to a sexual position. Even to joke.