By Niza Shimi
Did the inappropriate slap from a male coach to two of his female volleyball players only open a Pandora’s Box of other, possibly worse, incidents? Is it possible that the young players and those observing didn’t even realise that the slap was inappropriate?
After the videoclip of a volleyball coach slapping two of his players for losing points during a game went viral, it unleashed a frenzy of comments from ministers and netizens alike. But it is the response from a parent that floored me.
When a father for one of the girls was quoted as saying he did not think that the incident of the coach slapping his daughter would leave any psychological impact on her, it gets me even more alarmed.
The slap may not be hard enough to injure physically, but the female players being made to accept that a man can slap them “for their own good” is inappropriate and psychologically damaging indeed.
Is winning at all cost what sports is all about? I’m not into sports but my children were encouraged to take up a sport to build discipline, to instill team work, to pursue a goal of winning and to encourage healthy competition.
But if my son or daughter is ever treated inappropriately, whether physically or psychologically, I would not sit quietly and encourage the coach. I would not want my child to think winning means you need to be treated like dirt. It has to be one of mutual respect. Respect has to be earned, not enforced.
But sport is very physical and has odd rituals that outsiders may not understand. Where do we draw the line? Take judo Olympian Martyna Trajdos who asked her coach to give her a ritual slap to wake up her competitiveness just before entering the arena. She asked for it?
The slap wasn’t harsh but is it appropriate? The international uproar the incident caused also led to the suspension of her coach. Now the same thing is happening in Malaysia. Have there been many such “rituals” in sports that parents don’t know about?
Are children told to keep such sports rituals secret. To accept and to not complain about it? What about other inappropriate behaviour between coaches and players? Do they keep silent about those too?
If the Minister of Education and Minister of Sports is investigating the incident, please also investigate why the other players merely stood by and watched. Is it that they have been programmed to accept such behaviour? As though they deserved it?
Recently, several female athletes have spoken out about having experienced sexual harassment, inappropriate jokes and even rape. How long have they been subjected to such treatment before they dared to speak out?
When he was Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin mentioned the “existence of a toxic fearful culture, or a culture and environment of fear” in the diving sport. Is this culture only confined to diving?
If those athletes who compete at Olympic level have a hard time getting their voices heard, what more schoolchildren. It’s not about the slap. It’s the culture that permitted such behaviour. Surely this is wrong.
Is the slap only the tip of the coach-athlete behaviour iceberg? If the parent says it’s okay for the coach to do that, where does the child turn to for help? What message is the coach sending to the athlete, that he can do anything to her because he is the coach? How do we build world class athletes if we treat them like that?
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