Costa Rican National Olympic Committee releases results of “For a Safe Sport” survey

The Costa Rican National Olympic Committee (CONCRC) has released the results of its survey “For a Safe Sport” that was completed by 375 adult athletes from 35 sports federations in the country.

The study revealed that 72.48% of the respondents have experienced at least one situation of non-accidental violence in sport.

Likewise, 41% said they did not know where to go to obtain support or denounce and 57% said they did not know the law against harassment and sexual harassment in sports No. 9967 and its regulations.

The applied study is adapted from the SafeSport Center’s 2020 Athlete Culture and Climate Survey.

The methodologist Lucía Marín and the sports psychologist Wendy Zúñiga, as safeguarding officers certified by the International Olympic Committee, received authorization from the US organization to translate and adapt the survey to the Costa Rican context. The study was also validated with the specialist María Loreto González from Chile, who is in charge of the Office for Respect in that country.

It is important to specify that Safe Sport must be understood as an environment where athletes, as well as other people in the sports context (technical staff, medical staff, etc.) can train and compete in a healthy, supportive, respectful environment, equitable and free from any form of non-accidental violence.

Non-accidental violence in sport is the intention to abuse or violate through behaviors that are not appropriate for the integral development of people, it can be an isolated act or a pattern of behaviors repeated over time and can manifest itself through four forms: psychological violence, physical violence, sexual violence and negligence. Each of them can occur in isolation or in combination with each other.

Click here for the main findings.