Written by The latest podcast from Culture in Sports features Californian coach, mentor, and elite athlete Ali Williams. Ali discusses her views on toxic culture within her sport of synchronized swimming, now known as artistic swimming, with Wes Livingston and Mike Scaramella. The problems within the culture began to become apparent to Ali in her formative teen years.
While Ali had mostly positive experiences as a child, in her mid-teens she began to notice the increased pressure and lengthy hours as she progressed further in the field and further from her home.
The culture that developed was that of martyr to your sport, sacrificing well-being to prove dedication and devotion and therefore a greater worthiness. Once an athlete became unable to recover well from injuries, they were discarded. Unfortunately, this aspect of the culture is not discussed because there develops a non-verbal agreement, a normalization of behavior that prevents examination. Ali explains that in her experiences, there wasn’t a person assigned to oversee the health and welfare of the athletes. Left to their own assumptions then, the damaged athlete would hide their injuries and issues for fear of losing their position in the sport they love.
Like a lot of artistic sports, the aesthetic applied in judgement, where there was a perception of a disparity in body size or type, skin color, even lifestyle, there is a cemented climate of exclusiveness and intolerance for diversity that is incongruous in a healthy culture.
Ali authored a thesis on emotional abuse, highlighting the prominence of negative experiences in the memory of the young athlete. Interestingly, even among the bonds of teammates, anxieties are not necessarily shared but suffered silently to avoid unduly burdening others. Being ignored, being denied food and water, suffering extended physical stress, these are terribly damaging coaching techniques that stand as evidence of the coaches own trauma being inflicted through control and dominance.
Ali’s story reminds us how easily a young athletes’ positive perceptions of their sporting experiences can be diluted. Those negative events are the ones that make their mark and of course can pervert their love of their sport, and their willingness to pursue it further. She also reminds parents to check in with their young people to ensure that their relationships in sport are remaining respectful and healthy, and importantly that the kids feel happy, engaged, and included.
We know that positive cultures ameliorate sporting success. Ali’s recent retreats in Hawaii are designed to cultivate wellness and creative expression. In this way she is able to realize her own vision of what she believes artistic swimming should be; women empowering women in sport. Examining the psychology of the culture and the psychology of the individual and their motivations cultivates a more emotionally aware environment for the healthy development of sporting interest and excellence.