AbstractAs a member of the athlete medical/sport science support team, do you have a clinical approach to recognising harassment and abuse in your child athletes, and managing allegations? Are you confident that your medical interventions cannot be classified as medical mismanagement? While participation in sport has many physical and psychological health benefits, athletes are not immune to harassment and abuse that occurs during sport participation. Psychological abuse, the gateway to other forms of abuse such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect, is prevalent in all sports and at all levels. Specifically, the science base informs us that child athletes have a significant prevalence of harassment and abuse with potentially long-lasting and devasting psychological sequelae for the affected athlete. Particularly vulnerable groups of child athletes for harassment and abuse include elite athletes, athletes with a disability, and athletes that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Ethical frameworks and codes of conduct for physician practice and behaviours exist that identify the requirement for sport medicine physicians to have the clinical competence to recognise harassment and abuse, to manage allegations, and to support recovery, using a trauma-informed approach. The sport medicine physician also has a role to play in prevention of harassment and abuse in sport through educational initiatives, supporting research, as well as advocacy work to ensure sport organisations have effective safeguarding policies and procedures. Sport medicine physicians should ask themselves, are you doing all that you should to protect and support the child athletes under your care?
