08 Oct, 2025 I’ll never know what I could have achieved,” reflects Gloria Viseras from Spain, as she looks back on a sporting career that bears the weight of something no athlete should have to carry. Viseras was just 15 years old when she stepped onto the floor at the Olympic Games Moscow 1980 – a gifted gymnast representing her country on the world’s biggest sporting stage. But behind the poise of her performances in the Olympic spotlight was a hidden truth: Viseras was a survivor of severe abuse, suffering in silence at the hands of someone she was supposed to trust. “I trained while being abused. I was focused not on developing my skills, but on managing that abuse,” she recalls. “I was very talented. But I’ll never know what I could have done without the abuse. Of course, I was broken.” Back then, safeguarding simply didn’t exist in sport. There were no protocols, no reporting mechanisms and no one trained to recognise the signs that Viseras’s coach was abusing her. And for that broken 15-year-old girl, there was no safe space to speak out. For 30 years, Viseras kept her story to herself. When she finally disclosed it, the trauma of the court proceedings nearly broke her again. But it was during that time – facing threats and backlash – that she decided to act. “That’s when I decided I needed to work on this topic, to keep athletes from having to go through what I’ve gone through, and to be an advocate,” she says. Today, Viseras is the Senior Manager for Safeguarding in the IOC’s Health, Medicine and Science Department. She is at the heart of efforts to protect athletes through education, policy and a culture of trust. And for her, this work is more than a mission – it’s part of her own recovery. “For me, it’s very healing,” she says. “Because I see how my work is contributing to keeping athletes safe, and to helping them when the damage has already been done. That’s what drives me forward.” From silence to strategy For too long, stories like Viseras’s existed in silence. The topic of abuse in sport was often overlooked – considered too difficult, too uncomfortable or too damaging to the image of sport to be addressed openly. But that silence came at a cost. And as survivors began to speak out, their voices pushed sport to confront a reality it could no longer ignore. At the IOC, work on athlete safeguarding began in the early 2000s, with the publication of the first consensus statements and education tools. But the real shift in pace and priority came in 2016, when the organisation introduced its first Games-time Safeguarding Framework – a structured response to harassment and abuse at Olympic events – and launched the IOC Toolkit to help International Federations (IFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) develop policies and procedures of their own. “Back in the late 1990s to early 2000s, safeguarding in the context of sport was something that was just not discussed, and was highly taboo, despite how widespread an issue it is across society,” explains Kirsty Burrows, the IOC’s Associate Director for Health, Medicine and Science. “Early pioneers and thought leaders in this space brought this to the IOC, and it was clear that proactive leadership from the IOC was needed. “We began working on safeguarding in 2004. The first consensus was in 2007, followed by a number of educational tools and awareness-raising programmes. The Games-time Framework came in 2016, along with guidelines for sports organisations, and the IOC Athlete Safeguarding Toolkit was launched in 2017, though we were working on it since late 2015.” The 2016 Larry Nassar case, and other high-profile abuse scandals, were also pivotal in shifting public awareness. For the IOC, these moments reinforced the importance of preparation – and the bravery of those who made their voices heard. “When that heightened recognition hit, our toolkit was ready to launch – after 18 months of work with global experts. So we weren’t reacting – we were in a position to support athletes, with crucial guidance to sports organisations on safeguarding in sport. That’s something we’re proud of and that is really important in this space – not waiting for the crisis but building systems in advance.” That preparation proved critical because the foundations throughout the Olympic Movement were still extremely limited. “When I arrived in 2015, only one IF had a safeguarding statement that we could find,” recalls Burrows. Since then, progress has been driven by a clear mandate from the top. Under the leadership of IOC President Thomas Bach, safeguarding has moved from the margins to the mainstream of sport governance – and has been embedded across the Olympic Movement as part of Olympic Agenda 2020+5. “When we started, safeguarding wasn’t a strategic priority,” says Burrows. “Now it has its own section in the Olympic Charter. That shift – placing safeguarding at the heart of the Olympic Movement – has changed everything.”In 2022, the IOC established a dedicated Safe Sport Unit to lead this work year-round and at Games-time. The unit works across all IOC departments, and with partners throughout the Olympic Movement, to develop systems that are athlete-centred, trauma-informed and grounded in evidence, following a public health approach. Through updated frameworks, international training programmes and a growing network of trained professionals, safeguarding is no longer just about responding to incidents; it’s about changing the culture of sport. The shift has been significant. Today, all Olympic IFs have a designated safeguarding officer. Nearly nine in 10 have formal policies in place – and more importantly, they are being implemented and monitored. Through biannual reviews, needs assessments and hands-on guidance, safeguarding has shifted from being a document to becoming part of the daily culture of sport. “A policy alone doesn’t create cultural change,” says Burrows. “We look at broader indicators – not just whether a federation has a safeguarding policy and a focal point, but how safeguarding is
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