ABSTRACT
The issue of sexual abuse and harassment illustrates the difficulty to report wrongdoings in sport and the impact of omerta on the wellbeing of athletes. Experience demonstrates that reporting abuse, or any wrongdoing, within its own hierarchy represents a difficult and risky choice. It involves potentially conflicting values (loyalty, ethics and morality) and a cognitive dissonance between the rhetoric of the organisation leadership, and the reality faced by individual actors. This chapter presents the actual whistleblowing conditions through the inside view of an experienced sport actor and through examples in one national sporting context (Germany). It will then synthesise the emerging literature and knowledge on the sport specificities which can inhibit reporting behaviour: in particular, the weak power position of athletes, intense organisational loyalties and complex interpersonal and contextual variables. It will then present several steps to ensure that safe, reliable and trustworthy reporting options are provided within the sport system and that whistleblowing is promoted as an individual right for athletes who are witnesses or victims of physical and moral hazards.
