Research done in collaboration with a data science company indicate group, found that the abuse included sexist, racist, transphobic and homophobic material as well as baseless doping allegations.
World Athletics published online abuse study covering the Tokyo Olympic Games. • Female athlete was aiming for 87… https://t.co/YbNKt1Q2tr
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) 1637845927000
The study included a sample of 161 Twitter handles of current and former athletes (81 women, 80 men) attending the Tokyo Games from a list of 200 athletes selected by World Athletics.
Of the 23 athletes who received abuse in the positions identified by the study, 16 were women, while 63% of the total abuse was directed at two black female athletes.
The study identified 132 discriminatory positions, while 10% of abusers contained transphobic (9%) and homophobic (1%) content.
“When we published our safety policy earlier this month, I said that athletics clubs, schools and community sports environments should be safe and happy places for those in our sport,” he said. world athletics President Sebastian Coe,
“This research is disturbing in many ways, but what strikes me most is that abuse is targeted at individuals who use their performance and talents as a way to motivate and inspire people. Celebrating and sharing.”
World Athletics said it would conduct further research in this area to introduce an online abuse framework for its own social media channels to create a safer environment for athletes.
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