On July 30, 2021, the men’s U.S. Olympic fencing team made their first appearance at the Tokyo Games standing shoulder to shoulder in their collared white jackets.

Three of the athletes wore bright pink protective face masks; a fourth, Alen Hadzic, wore black. The fencers in pink were standing in solidarity with sexual assault victims. They were opposing the presence of Hadzic, their teammate, who had been accused of sexual misconduct by three fellow female fencers. 

Having been temporarily suspended by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, Hadzic, who denies all charges, later won an appeal through an arbitrator. The suspension was ruled inappropriate, thereby allowing him to travel as USA Fencing’s alternate to Tokyo. Shockingly, USA Fencing acknowledged that it had known—for eight years—about as many as six previous sexual misconduct accusations against Hadzic, including a year-long suspension at Columbia University. All the while, USA Fencing supported Hadzic’s rise to the highest levels of the sport. 

While choosing an athlete who is currently being investigated for sexual assault by multiple women to represent his country at the Olympic Games is troubling, the timing of USA Fencing’s demonstration was equally poignant. Just days earlier, Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast of all time, retired from the all-around competition due to mental health issues, which she later said stemmed from her abuse by convicted predator and former team doctor Larry Nassar.

Biles’ experience at the Olympic Games is a prime example of the long-ranging consequences of sexual abuse on minor athletes. Not only did the actions and subsequent coverup by USA Gymnastics provide the spark that helped establish the U.S. Center for SafeSport in 2017, Biles’ withdrawal, four years later, should have been a very public reminder to all of us of just what is at stake. 

Yet instead of pulling together to determine how best to protect our underage athletes, sporting organizations seem focused on doing the opposite. 

In December, USA Badminton made headlines for allegedly seeking retribution against a whistle-blower who filed a SafeSport report on behalf of the governing body. While that investigation remains ongoing, USA Badminton’s attorney has publicly taken aim at SafeSport, accusing them of having an “axe to grind.” 

“At the end of the day, we have an organization that is equipped to deal with incidents of sexual abuse,” attorney Jon Little told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s the police. Call the police.”

Comments like these speak volumes about where USA Badminton puts its priorities. But a governing body’s attitude isn’t created in a vacuum. Organizations like USA Badminton are informed by the grassroots culture within their own sporting populace, and for that, we also need to shine the spotlight on ourselves. 

Scroll any comments section following the SafeSport suspension of a major athlete and you’ll often find not only examples of victim-blaming, but multiple tirades against SafeSport and due process. Factual inaccuracies are ripe in these forums, and it’s common for commenters to repeatedly overstate the prevalence of false reporting, which occurs in less than 10% of cases according to multiple research studies. By contrast, the majority of sexual assaults—63%—are never reported to authorities. 

Which group really needs protecting? It’s not the adults. It’s our children.

To be sure, commentors aren’t wrong in expressing the idea that we are still a long way from perfection. SafeSport has been accused of being underfunded, understaffed, and lacking transparency and independence.

But the frequent undercurrent—either overtly stated or subtly intoned by some organizations and keyboard warriors—that we are somehow worse off now than we were before SafeSport and mandatory reporting is wholly unsupported by the evidence. 

Just look at the numbers. 

In terms of response and resolution, SafeSport has confidentially interacted with tens of thousands of people on what are very sensitive matters, fielding nearly 11,000 reports since its inception. SafeSport is also helping to reduce misinformation and increase understanding surrounding various forms of abuse in sport through mandatory training programs. To date, SafeSport modules have been taken by more than two million people across various national sports. 

Is trying to eliminate SafeSport really where we should be spending our energy?

Rather than focusing on the Center’s drawbacks, why don’t we ask ourselves what we are doing to prevent sexual misconduct from happening in the first instance? That’s entirely missed in the debate, and really, it’s the one aspect that matters most: protecting our children from harm. SafeSport is not the enemy. That title falls to the abusers alone. 

Standing silently together in their pink face masks, fencers Jake Hoyle, Curtis McDowald, and Yeisser Ramirez certainly made a statement in Tokyo. That same spotlight is also on each of us, at whatever level we participate in sport, as we walk onto the field with our team, dive into the pool, or trot our horse into the arena. It shines on us whether we are an athlete, a coach, a parent, or an adult involved in any form. It’s on all of us to be part of the seismic cultural shift that is required to put a stop to sexual misconduct in sports.

And cultural change starts with the organizations that lead our sports, including every governing body that exists—from USA Gymnastics to USA Fencing to the U.S. Equestrian Federation. Let’s unite behind our shared goal to protect young athletes. A quest for medals, trophies, or ribbons, however grand, should never come at the expense of our moral obligation to protect our youth.

Stand with us and stand up for our children. Let’s protect them as our first, second, and last priority. Challenge your sporting organization to do the right thing and establish a zero-tolerance policy around sexual misconduct.

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