The abuse of British sportswomen

Is there an epidemic of abuse, stalking and harassment aimed at women professionals in sport? As Wimbledon (30 June-13 July) and the UEFA European Women’s Championship (2-27 July) approach, it is very disturbing to see that the sports pages are so dominated by stories of the abuse of sportswomen, much of it online.

First, there is the ongoing story of a man stalking the British tennis player, Emma Raducanu. For some time, she has been followed by a man who keeps trying to turn up at her tennis matches. Most recently, he was caught trying to get tickets for this year’s Wimbledon. He had already been given a restraining order for stalking Emma Raducanu and was caught trying to get tickets for Wimbledon this summer. His name had been highlighted by the All England Club’s security system.

Back in February, the story first broke, when the twenty-two year old player hid behind the umpire’s chair after receiving repeated unwanted attention from a “fixated” man at the Dubai Championships. Raducanu said “she couldn’t see the ball through tears” and could “barely breathe”. According to Sky News, this wasn’t the first time she had been aware of him. “She had been aware of the man’s presence at previous tournaments in Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Doha before she spotted him in the stands during her second-round match against Karolina Muchova.” The story continued: “Previously an obsessive fan was given a restraining order in 2022 after coming to Raducanu’s house three times.”

More recently, another leading British tennis player, Katie Boulter, 28, ranked 39^th in the world, told BBC Sport of the scale of online abuse she had been receiving. In an interview, she said that she had received messages saying, “Hope you get cancer’ and threatening to damage her “grandmother’s grave if she’s not dead by tomorrow” and “candles and a coffin for your entire family”. A third message said, “Go to hell, I lost money my mother sent to me.”

This kind of online abuse, she said, has become “the norm”…It becomes more apparent every single time you go on your phone,’ she said. ‘I think it increases in number and it also increases in the level of things that people say. I don’t think there’s anything off the cards now.”

“I think it just shows how vulnerable we are,” Boulter said. “You really don’t know if this person is on site, if they’re nearby or if they know where you live…”

This problem of online abuse has been discussed by numerous other women tennis players, including the five-time major champion Iga Swiatek and the US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Pegula described “constant death

threats” and ”family threats” as being “normal now”. In March Swiatek announced she was being protected by increased security after an “aggressive and taunting” fan verbally abused her at the Miami Open. Other players have reported receiving racist abuse.

Now, in the run-up to the UEFA European Women’s Championship in July, members of the England women’s football team also spoke of “damaging” online abuse and said they would avoid social media during future major football tournaments. The Arsenal forward, Alesia Russo, was one of just many England players who spoke about the impact social media abuse can have on their well-being. The Chelsea star Lauren James said “the abuse never really stops,” but that she has become adept at coping with it.

This comes just a few months after Luis Rubiales, the former Spanish FA president, was found guilty over kissing the Spanish player, Jenni Hermoso, without consent after the last Women’s World Cup final in 2023 but avoided a prison sentence. The Audiencia Nacional court in Spain said it had imposed an 18-month fine equating to €20 a day on Rubiales, who it found had kissed Hermoso without her consent. The ruling also prohibits Rubiales from going within 200 metres of Hermoso or communicating with her for one year.

This is all deeply concerning and should attract more widespread media attention during the forthcoming major sporting events this Summer. Too often, this kind of abuse and harassment has been treated in isolation rather than part of a larger pattern in sport today and because the amount of money and sponsorship in international sport increases constantly, sporting authorities seem reluctant to treat it with the seriousness it deserves.

For years, women’s sports were marginalised in terms of media coverage. Now that women’s sports have at last started to receive the attention they deserve, this has gone together with a frightening increase in online abuse, stalking and harassment by men at tournaments.

A Message from TheArticle

We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout these hard economic times. So please, make a donation.