Major international win for survivors, their families, and ARA.
September 2025
A decision has been handed down that informs the entire gymnastics community on what safeguarding investigations should look like.
Our thanks go to journalist David Mark and everyone who has been on this journey since September 2021. Over four years ARA has lobbied Sport Integrity Australia and Gymnastics Australia, briefed politicians for Senate Estimates, appeared on the 7.30 Report, and lodged with the Gymnastics Ethics Foundation in 2022. It has been far too long a journey, and it should never have come to this.
What this means for safeguarding
For safeguarding to work, in Australia and globally, investigation processes must be robust. At a minimum, that means investigators adhere to wrap-around, trauma-informed processes: considering key evidence, interviewing key witnesses, gathering sufficient information to demonstrate both arguments were considered, fact-checking counter statements with both parties, and producing reports transparent enough to show the quality of the work.
Current and historical cases held by Athlete Rights Australia demonstrate that a consistent, reliable approach reflecting all of these processes has not yet been found.
Sporting bodies that adopt investigation outcomes may be trusting that a process has been robust when it has not. From a legal perspective, the national sporting body assumes that risk. The risk is not mitigated, and harmful practices continue.
Where sporting bodies resist re-examination, they expose themselves and the investigating body to legal action. The push-back is counterproductive, and leads to reputational damage, as this case shows.
The human cost
Beyond all of this is our ethic of care. Derelict processes create further harm to children and families, with a compounding effect: post-traumatic stress, self-harm, disordered eating and suicidality. These are serious public health issues.
This secondary form of harm is recognised in the literature as systems abuse. Lawyers working with victims and survivors of gendered and family violence will know the term well. This case evidences how it occurs in sport.
Solutions require a whole-of-systems approach, with survivors placed at the centre and invited to co-design protections.
