Amateur Athlete Research Articles

Effectiveness of motor imagery on sports performance in football players: A randomised control trial.

Nowadays, the development of training programs for speed, agility and reaction time responses in football players is increasing widely. Motor imagery is a new method that uses collateral with physical training. However, there is still a scarcity of evidence concerning the addition of motor imagery protocol to routine training programs. The main objective was to compare speed, agility and reaction time after motor imagery training in university athletes and amateur athletes who received and did not receive motor imagery training for 2 weeks. Participants were divided into 4 subgroups as follows: university athlete group with motor imagery training and control group, amateur athlete group with motor imagery training and control group. This study collected the training effects of speed, agility and reaction time. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test and the Mann-Whitney U test were selected to analyse the differences within and between groups, respectively. The result presented positive changes in all variables after training sessions for 2 weeks in all groups. Speed at 20 m, agility, and reaction time were found to be significantly different after motor imagery training in both university athletes and amateur athletes. This finding demonstrated that the addition of the motor imagery training along with routine physical training promotes physical performance in athletes at all experience levels. In further studies, the retention effect after practice should be considered.

Prevention of ACL injuries in professional soccer athletes: a systematic review

Introduction: Soccer is a sport whose ever-present characteristics are high-intensity movements, with accelerations, decelerations, changes in direction, jumps, turns, kicks, sprints, and sudden stops. This sport has many fans, both professionals and amateurs; with this factor of high incidence of practitioners, this sport ends up having a high rate of injuries due to irregular lawns and physical contact between players. Objective: To investigate the differences of preventive programs with regard to their components, the frequency, and duration of training, when training is carried out in relation to the sports season, and its ability to prevent ACL tears in soccer players. Literature Review: The sports physiotherapist has the duty to provide the ARTIGO DE REVISÃO https://doi.org/10.51995/2237-3373.v13i3e110066 2 Santos, Aguiar, & Costa 2023, Vol. 13, n. 3, e110066 professional or amateur athlete with the proper comfort and safety in relation to sports practice, leading to the improvement of the quality of life and the full recovery of the athlete. The physiotherapist is essential from before the injury, thus being able to monitor and evaluate the athlete, thus identifying possible injuries and developing a specific preventive work so that this athlete does not suffer from future injuries. Methods: The systematic review was followed using the PRISMA guidelines, and the search was performed in the PubMED database in English. Mesh and DeCS recommended the search terms, and the descriptors “Anterior Cruciate Ligament”, “Soccer”, “Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries”, ´´Tertiary Prevention`` were used and to combine the search descriptors the “AND” was used. The inclusion criteria in the research were: soccer players who had an ACL injury; articles that addressed evident data on the injury mechanism in the ACL; English language; respecting the time between 2013 and 2023. Exclusion criteria were books, book chapters, abstracts and articles that did not present research on ACL injuries and samples that did not report being from soccer players. Results: n=197 articles were found in the PubMED database. After applying the exclusion criteria, we obtained n= 9 results. The 9 articles that make up this study are in English. Conclusion: The results first showed that prevention programs can be an ally during soccer practice, as the study obtained effective results in reducing ACL injuries.

Myocardial Infarction in Young Athletes.

Myocardial infarction (MI) in young athletes is very rare but can have serious consequences, including sudden cardiac death (SCD), an increased proarrhythmic burden in future life, and/or heart failure. We present two cases of young athletes with MI. They did not have previous symptoms, traditional risk factors, or a family history of MI. One case involves a 37-year-old male amateur athlete who experienced two MI following intense physical exertion, likely due to the erosion of an insignificant atherosclerotic plaque caused by a sudden increase in blood pressure during exercise. The second case describes a 36-year-old male semi-professional runner who collapsed at the finish line of a half-marathon and was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The heart's oxygen demand-supply mismatch during intensive exercise led to MI. Following the case presentation, we discuss the most common causes of MI in young athletes and their mechanisms, including spontaneous coronary artery dissection, chest trauma, abnormalities of the coronary arteries, coronary artery spasm, plaque erosion, hypercoagulability, left ventricular hypertrophy, and anabolic steroids use.

Case Report on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy – How to Detect it in Middle-Aged Amateur Athletes

The safety of exercise in athletes with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and the emphasis on shared decision-making has led to the updating of the most recent recommendations, which have reduced restrictions on exercise and competitive sports activity in this population. This case report confirms that obstructive HCM reduces fitness in the amateur athlete, even if paucisymptomatic or asymptomatic, leading to a physical limitation to practicing high-intensity sports. It also points out how it is possible to differentiate physiological left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy from morphologically mild but pathological one, outlining the clinical aspects from a morphological and functional point of view.

Timing-specific patterns of cerebral activations during motor imagery: A case study of the expert brain signature

Brain activations elicited during motor imagery (MI) in experts are typically reduced compared to novices, which is interpreted as a neurophysiological correlate of increased neural efficiency. However, the modulatory effects of MI speed on expertise-related differences in brain activation remains largely unknown. In the present pilot study, we compared the magnetoencephalographic (MEG) correlates of MI in an Olympic medallist and an amateur athlete under conditions of slow, real-time and fast MI. Data revealed event-related changes in the time course of alpha (8–12 Hz) power of MEG oscillations, for all timing conditions. We found that slow MI was associated with a corollary increase in neural synchronization, in both participants. Sensor-level and source-level analyses however disclosed differences between the two expertise levels. The Olympic medallist achieved greater activation of cortical sensorimotor networks than the amateur athlete, particularly during fast MI. Fast MI elicited the strongest event-related desynchronization of alpha oscillations, which was generated from cortical sensorimotor sources in the Olympic medallist, but not in the amateur athlete. Taken together, data suggest that fast MI is a particularly demanding form of motor cognition, putting a specific emphasis on cortical sensorimotor networks to achieve the formation of accurate motor representations under demanding timing constraints.

Anthropometric and Kinanthropometric Distinctive Profile of a Sedentary Population Compared with an Amateur Athlete Population

Anthropometry and kinanthropometry are sciences that measure variations in the physical dimensions and composition of the human body. There are studies that analyze these parameters individually, but we believe that it is much better to analyze them globally. We realized a multivariate analysis, to determine which variables could explain the profiles of the subjects depending on sex, lifestyle, and type of sports modality. We analyzed 25 variables in a population of 574 people aged between 18 and 42 years. A multivariate statistical analysis was performed using exploratory factor analysis, and then we obtained five differentiating variables: fat mass, muscle mass, bone mass, skinfolds, and robustness. We classified the population into sedentary lifestyle, amateur athletes with predominance of the upper and lower train, and amateur athletes with predominance mainly of the lower train, in an attempt to analyze the existence of statistical significance between them. Amateur athletes with a predominance of the upper and lower train have a higher Body Mass Index and a lower Relative Index of the Lower Limbs, in addition to greater muscle mass and robustness than those athletes with a predominance mainly of the lower train. The sedentary control group presented higher values in terms of skinfolds and fat mass. This work could help people to choose the best sport according to their morphotype, and also could be used to plan sports training to potentiate different body regions, injury recovery, selection of talented athletes, etc.

Training Performance Indications for Amateur Athletes Based on Nutrition and Activity Lifelogs

To maintain and improve an amateur athlete’s fitness throughout training and to achieve peak performance in sports events, good nutrition and physical activity (general and training specifically) must be considered as important factors. In our context, the terminology “amateur athletes” represents those who want to practice sports to protect their health from sickness and diseases and improve their ability to join amateur athlete events (e.g., marathons). Unlike professional athletes with personal trainer support, amateur athletes mostly rely on their experience and feeling. Hence, amateur athletes need another way to be supported in monitoring and recommending more efficient execution of their activities. One of the solutions to (self-)coaching amateur athletes is collecting lifelog data (i.e., daily data captured from different sources around a person) to understand how daily nutrition and physical activities can impact their exercise outcomes. Unfortunately, not all factors of the lifelog data can contribute to understanding the mutual impact of nutrition, physical activities, and exercise frequency on improving endurance, stamina, and weight loss. Hence, there is no guarantee that analyzing all data collected from people can produce good insights towards having a good model to predict what the outcome will be. Besides, analyzing a rich and complicated dataset can consume vast resources (e.g., computational complexity, hardware, bandwidth), and this therefore does not suit deployment on IoT or personal devices. To meet this challenge, we propose a new method to (i) discover the optimal lifelog data that significantly reflect the relation between nutrition and physical activities and training performance and (ii) construct an adaptive model that can predict the performance for both large-scale and individual groups. Our suggested method produces positive results with low MAE and MSE metrics when tested on large-scale and individual datasets and also discovers exciting patterns and correlations among data factors.

Sports law, sports policy and the amateur athlete

There have been a number of significant papers on the European Court of Justice’s 2019 decision in TopFit v DLV, a preliminary reference which concerns direct nationality discrimination against an amateur athlete. This paper contributes to that knowledge-base by drawing on those contributions but also by setting the case in its historical context to show how it aligns with forty years’ worth of developments in both sports law and sports policy. Furthermore, TopFit illustrates that the potential ramifications of the EU’s sports competence as laid down in Article 165 TFEU might be greater than they first appear. Contrary to the Advocate General’s Opinion, the Court held that direct nationality discrimination laws were applicable to amateur sporting activities – there was no need to establish the existence of economic activity which, fortuitously, Biffi possessed. It thus needs to be considered alongside the wider caselaw on EU citizenship, and the case is not a matter of ‘purely sporting interest.’ But nationality restrictions can still be legitimate if they are deemed to be a proportionate response to a legitimate sporting concern. In any other cultural sphere, the idea that one’s desire to take part in an amateur event might be lawfully ended by ‘proportionate’ discrimination would seem ludicrous. The paper argues that sport’s privileged position within the European Union is a reflection of its ability to leverage its financial muscle and ubiquity, and its concomitant ability to influence policymakers; it does not possess any ‘inherent’ qualities that make it ‘special’ in comparison to other cultural fields.

The effects of the basic meso-cycle of the general preparation period on the improvement of long jump performance and fitness level

One of the most competitive sports events is long jump event. Most of the athletes prioritize performance over fitness level. The aim of the study was to increase an athlete's long jump performance and overall fitness. This article describes how to determine and implement training loads for the athlete. An athlete who had stopped participating in sport was selected and his fitness components were assessed at baseline performance. Utilizing baseline data, an annual plan was created, and the training load was thoroughly evaluated. The athlete received the first meso-cycle for eight weeks. The same test was again given following the eight-week training course in order to assess his current performance and compare it to his baseline performance. Performance on the pretest and posttest was compared. The subject was an amateur athlete at the Sabaragamuwa University in Sri Lanka. Through this training program, the participants' initial performance was improved by 1.6%, 2.9%, 1.8%, 12.5%, 14.2%, 17.3%, 20%, and 8.6%, respectively, in the 30m acceleration test, leg elastic strength, standing board jump, upper body strength test, lower body strength test, sit up test, sit and reach test, and vertical jump test. The results indicate that the introduced approach should be utilized to determine the training load, and this mesocycle can be used by beginner and intermediate athletes throughout their initial period of preparation.

The Effect of Swimming on Blood Lactate and Sleep, after Intense Efforts in Handball Players

Handball is a dynamic game and requires from the subjects an intense physical effort and a great psychic commitment. The handball training process has to solve a whole series of performance skills that are found in the handball game, in this respect in order to achieve both the offensive actions with accuracy and speed and to block the actions of the opposing team. The sooner handball players recover after training or matches, the more work can be done, and the increased levels of training translate into more efficient games. Swimming in general is associated with performance sports but also as a means of recreation and improvement of the quality of life, the horizontal position favouring this. In this regard we have investigated the efficiency of swimming in eliminating lactate from the blood, and increasing the quality of sleep after intense efforts, in the sense of optimizing sports efficiency. The study carried out on twenty amateur athletes handball players, aged between 19 and 25 years, being divided into two equal groups. The experiment group (Group 1), after intense effort, performed an active recovery with specific elements of swimming for 20 minutes at an intensity of 55-60% relative to the maximum heart rate, and the control group (Group 2) during this time achieved a passive recovery. The results of the study have shown that specific elements of swimming, after intense efforts, cause significant changes in the elimination of lactate from the blood and provide a quieter sleep for amateur athlete’s handball players members of the experiment group.

대학 여자 멀리뛰기 엘리트 선수와 아마추어 선수의 각운동량 비교분석

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the angular momentum of the lower extremities and upper extremities and the resultant velocity of the COM(center of mass) in the long jump motions of elite female long jump athletes and amateur athletes. This study obtained the following results. First, the average angular momentum of the right arm of the elite female long jump athlete and amateur athlete during the long jump action was high in all events except Event 4, Event 5, and Event 6, and there was a significant difference in Event 8. Second, the average angular momentum of the left arm during the long jump of elite female long jump athletes and amateur athletes was high in all events except Event 3, Event 4, and Event 5, and there was a significant difference in Event 8. Third, the average angular momentum of the right leg of the elite female long jump athlete and amateur athlete during the long jump was high in all events except for Event 3 and Event 4. There was a significant difference between Event 3 and Event 8. Fourth, the average angular momentum of the left leg of the elite female long jump athlete and amateur athlete during the long jump operation was high in all Events except Event 1 and Event 5, and there was a significant difference in Event 8. Fifth, the average COM resultant velocity of the elite female long jump athlete and amateur athlete during the long jump action showed that the average COM resultant velocity of all Event elite athlete was high, showing a significant difference.

Case Study Detecting Venous Blood Glucose in Relaxed Activity in one NAF Tube, and in three NAF Tube for After Anaerob Run Activity

Ordinary cane (OC) is beverage natural used famously in the world. It is also used in research for athlete after badminton sport1) to look the effects in blood glucose detection in sports laboratory or for mice after being fed with cane juice of cavitated and probed, its cane juice treated crude palm oil floating of transducer2) was making more active. Sonicated by the liquid floating transducer to kill the microbe3,4). The in vivo research from healthy of amateur athlete Venous blood samples in leisure activities contained in NaF-1 tube and venous blood samples after Anaerobic run divided into 3 tubes: NaF-2, NaF-3 blood sample mixed by cane juice, NaF-4 blood sample mixed by OC after float Crude Palm Oils transducer (Tr. FCPO) 3 hours, where it’s exposed after dipped the piezoelectric5) (DP) 3 hours. The specific criteria in this research are: a. Anaerobic running in the sports field, b. Taking random venous samples between leisured and post-anaerobic activities, c. Carrying NaF tube from the sports field to Laboratory, d. detecting blood glucose from NaF tube. The results that turn out is 3 slope positive of blood glucose levels for: NaF-2, NaF-3, and NaF-4, there’s increases to in NaF-1, and if the blood glucose values of NaF-3 and Naf-4 are higher than NaF-2, then m is also positive. While another athlete (name’s Geo) is the negative slope of blood glucose values at NaF-4 of NaF-1, where called Geo cases. The solution to Geo’s case he is possibility pre-diabetes or cholesterol. Keywords: Anaerobic run, Sport field, Blood glucose levels, Cane juice, Cane juice cavitation, Floated CPO transducer.

Orthopedic manipulative therapeutic approach of costochondral pain after combined strenuous endurance exercise: a case report

The purpose of this case study was to present the effectiveness of physiotherapeutic treatment based on manual orthopedic techniques in an amateur athlete with costochondritis due to physical strenuous exercise. A 31 years old experienced, well-trained, endurance amateur athlete presented chest pain suggesting costochondritis after physical and kinetic examination. Patient reported to present pain after physical effort in the last two weeks (combination of mountain biking, route cycling, running, swimming and yoga). Manual therapy including techniques as resonant oscillation mobilization of the thoracic region, Lewit´s post-isometric relaxation and sliding of the right humeral head, cervico-thoracic high speed technique mobilization, active-assisted mobilization of 7th to 10th ribs during expiratory phase, superficial myofascial induction in lower costal area and, muscle power technique, is effective to relieve pain increase mobility of cervical rotation, increase mobility of glenohumeral joint (e.g., internal rotation), in an amateur athlete with costochondritis due to physical strenuous exercise.

Rehabilitation of Persistent Neurocognitive Deficits Following Sports-Related Concussion in an Amateur Football Athlete: Case Study

Demonstrate neurocognitive improvements in an inactive, amateur football athlete following a functional neurology approach to multimodal neurorehabilitation. American Football has been reported to have one of the highest incidences of concussion in all contact sports. Given the high rate of concussive blows during play, the investigation of treatment modalities is warranted. This case study presents a 23-year-old male amateur football player who has sustained 3 diagnosed concussions with additional suspected concussions throughout his time participating in football. In addition, his symptoms persisted years after ceasing participation in all contact sports. The athlete was prescribed 10 treatment sessions over 5 consecutive days at an outpatient neurorehabilitation center specializing in functional neurology. The C3Logix neurocognitive assessment and Graded Symptom Checklist were utilized on intake and discharge. Multimodal treatment interventions included transcranial photobiomodulation, non-invasive neuromodulation of the lingual branch of the trigeminal nerve, neuromuscular reeducation of the limbs bilaterally, hand-eye coordination training, vestibular rehabilitation utilizing a three-axis whole-body off-axis rotational device, and cognitive training. On intake, composite symptom score was reported as 10/162, Trails Making Test Part A was 20.8 seconds, Part B was 41.9 seconds, Digit Symbol Matching score was 53, Simple Reaction Time was 277 milliseconds, and Choice Reaction Time was 412 milliseconds. On discharge, the patient experienced a 70% in self-reported symptoms, Trails A improved to 14.8 seconds (+29%), Trails B improved to 30.3 seconds (+28%), Simple Reaction Time was 248 milliseconds (10% faster), and Choice Reaction Time was 340 milliseconds (17% faster). The present case study demonstrates a meaningful improvement in symptoms and neurocognitive performance of a patient with multiple sports-related concussions. Therefore, the Press suggest further investigation into a functional neurology approach to multi-modal, intensive care to improve neurocognitive impairment in athletes that sustained concussions participating in footballs.

“However, he did not switch to walking”: the experience of a philosophical research of collective endurance running

The object of this research is the collective endurance running as a social phenomenon of the XX – XXI centuries. The subject of this research is the spiritual grounds of the person’s choice and the sociocultural components of the existence of collective endurance running viewed in their interrelation. The article leans on the scientific approach and general methodological principles of scientific study, dialectical method, as well as ideas and values of the concept of humanism. The author set the following tasks: determine the social grounds and factors of proliferation endurance running in contemporary history; explore the peculiarities of interaction between running locomotion and unconscious aspect of the personality of amateur athlete; explicate the impact of long-distance running upon metaphysical component of the spiritual world of a “running” person; outline the social needs fulfilled by cultivation and propaganda of the positive impact of long-distance running practices; determine the problematic field of the “philosophy of running”. The novelty of this work lies in description of the worldview foundations of running activity of the amateur long-distance runners. These foundations are viewed as the main reason for proliferation of endurance running in modern society, as well as the semantic core of the problematic field of the “philosophy of running”. The metaphysical component of mentality of the “running” person via a long running effort goes back to the transcendent beginning of its existence; amateur endurance running provides selection of the most effective adaptive skills; forms an autotelic personality oriented towards the mode of “being”, rather than “possessing”; serves as a component of environmental movements and charity campaigns, a form of socialization of people with impairments; has a powerful educational potential. Being the basis of most athletic movements, running can be viewed as the “initial cell” that determines the impact of sport practices upon the human mind and body, as well as the current stage of social development. In relation to a human, such impact can be described by the word “kalokagathia”, while in relation to society – by the terms “humanism” "and “democracy”.

Impact of Kinanthropometric Differences According to Non-Professional Sports Activity Practiced

Kinanthropometry allows us to analyze variations in physical dimensions and body composition. This study’s objective was to evaluate the kinanthropometric differences based on physical activity performance, depending on whether the lower body or the whole body is more or less potent and the differences with a sedentary population. We analyzed 131 individuals (74 men and 57 women), with an average age of 22.68 ± 2.98 years. We differentiated three populations: sedentary (n = 63), runners (n = 20), and basketball players (n = 48). Measurements and indices were obtained following the international protocol of the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK). The results show differences between the populations regarding weight, height, wingspan, and certain perimeters, diameters, and morphotypes depending on the predominant training type and the sedentary population. These anthropometric measurements will allow the amateur athlete to compare between seasons or other moments of training, pay attention to their evolution, and assess the possibility of changes in training.

Calcaneal stress fractures in civilian patients

Objective: To conduct a retrospective magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) analysis of calcaneal stress fractures and construct an epidemiological profile of these injuries. Methods: Of 258 MRIs analyzed, nine were consistent with calcaneal stress fractures. These were evaluated by two investigators to confirm the diagnosis. The calcaneus was divided into three anatomical regions: anterior calcaneus (delimited by the angle of Gissane), mid-calcaneus (delimited by the angle of Gissane and tuberosity of the posterior facet), and posterior calcaneus (delimited by the tuberosity of the posterior facet). Fractures were classified as low-grade (grade I, when associated with periosteal edema; II, endosteal; III, muscular) or high-grade (grade IV, when there was a visible fracture line on MRI). Results: The average patient with a calcaneal stress fracture was an overweight (66.7%) female (66.7%) amateur athlete (66.7%), with a left-sided (55.6%) grade IV fracture (77.8%) of the posterior portion of the calcaneus (66.7%), sustained while running (77.8%), and took 1 to 2 years to be diagnosed (66.7%). Conclusion: Calcaneal stress fractures are more frequent in women, amateur athletes, middle age, and in those with overweight. Younger patients usually present with grade I, II, or III fractures, while middle-aged patients present most often with grade IV fractures; lesions tend to be more common in the anterior region than in the mid- or posterior calcaneus. Level of Evidence IV; Therapeutic Studies; Case Series.

장시간의 고강도 유산소 운동이 항산화 효소 및 근 손상지표에 미치는 영향

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of long-term aerobic exercise on muscle damage indicators and antioxidant enzymes by observation of amateur athlete participants. We observed the changes that occurred at rest and immediately after a marathon and triathlon.<BR> Method: The subjects of the study were 8 amateur male marathon runners and 9 amateur triathletes. All participants were in their 30’s and 40’s of age and resided in the city of S. After the marathon runners ran a full race of 42.195 kilometers, two blood samples were taken immediately after the race when their conditions were stable. After the triathletes went through an Olympic course which included 1.5 kilometers of swimming, 40 kilometers of cycling, and 10 kilometers of running, two blood samples were also taken immediately after completion when their conditions were stable. Using the SPSS/PC+Ver. 21.0K program, descriptive statistics (Mean ± Standard Error) of all dependent variables were calculated. A two-way repeated ANOVA was performed to verify the difference between the average of the dependent variables once the homogeneity between the two groups (marathon and triathlon) and between thew to tests (stable and immediately after the race) were confirmed. A paired t-test was performed for the differences of the two tests within the groups, and an independent t-test was performed for the differences between the two groups. The statistical significance level was set to α=.05.<BR> Results: In the marathon group, SOD significantly increased immediately after the race (p<.001). In the triathlon group, SOD significantly increased in the same manner after the race (p<.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups. In both groups, CK and LDHi significantly increased immediately after the races (p<.001), with no significant differences between the groups.<BR> Conclusion: During long-term high-intensity aerobic exercise, marathons and triathlons increase oxidative stress, which can lead to muscle damage. Additionally, the increase of SOD, an antioxidant defense system enzyme, is a response to oxidative stress and appears to prevent the generation of free radicals from exercise.

Doping in amateur sport on the example of mass running events

Recent years of general life well-being have significantly affected for the perception of free time by rich societies. In the second half of the 20th century, active recreation and caring about health weren't be the main pillar necessary to maintain physical and mental health. Sport was treated only as work, and only professionals athletes did it. In the 21st century, the situation changed radically. Some people started saying that active recreation allow maintain mental and physical balance, which contributes to more effective work in other aspects of life. Interest in sport in free time started increase, what contributed to the emergence of new industries, which are sport services. Organizing mass running events, opening new fitness clubs and coaching services have become a job for many former professional athletes. With the growing popularity of amateur sport, it started to be a part of the professional sport, and eventually became a part of it. Health improvement has stopped be the basic motivational factor of an amateur athlete, it has been replaced by the desire to achieve good sports results, which is associated with increased interest in prohibited substances in this environment. Therefore, main goal of this article is to check the knowledge of doping issues in sport amateur enviroment and to verify commonness of doping in mass running events. Another important aspect is a anti-doping secure in mass running events. Correct functioning of anti-doping prevention during competitions is necessary to expand knowledge about doping in general society.

Raising the Bar: Increasing Protection for Athletes in the Olympic Movement from Sexual Harassment and Abuse

After the Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics scandal surfaced in 2016, the United States enacted a federal act titled “Protecting Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017.” This Act requires immediate mandatory reporting to the U.S. Center for SafeSport for any alleged child abuse of an amateur athlete who is a minor. An increasing amount of legislation is being passed to address sexual harassment and abuse in sports in the United States; however, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which governs the Olympic Movement, is lacking in its sexual harassment and abuse policies. This article will address how the IOC’s sexual harassment and abuse policies are not as robust as they should be. The amount of attention that the Olympics receives worldwide gives the IOC a global platform to be a leader in taking a stance on sexual harassment and abuse policies.