ABSTRACT
Since the early 1990s, academic and popular literature on the involvement of children and adolescents in competitive sports has flourished, reflecting the increased importance given to the practice of sports by young people. Scientific research from a wide variety of fields, ranging from the medical to the sociological, has without doubt contributed to our understanding of the implications for young athletes of their participation in sports. Popular literature provides parents and coaches with practical advice on how to improve the quality of services given to young athletes and avoid abuses. Despite the amount of knowledge available, however, studying the human rights of athletes is still problematic, in part because no tradition of applying human rights to sport has ever existed.
