How many people can you identify in these photos? I’m sure most can identify Simone Biles, but what about the other women? All of these women are elite, professional athletes. All of these women have also been subject to sexual harassment at the hands of authority figures within their respective athletic organizations. Why do we know the name and story of Simone Biles but not Maggie Nichols, Mana Shim, or Sinead Farrelly?
The answer is rooted in the “fragile fame” of female athletes. Female athletes’ fragile fame is contingent on economic, social, and patriarchal factors that culminate to place the female athlete on a particularly precarious path to success. With only 0.4% of sponsorship given to female athletes (Women in Sport, 2021) and a historically vast wage gap between female and male athletes, in most cases, competitive female athletes must achieve a national or other high level team in order to make a living in athletics. Yet, once they are offered that spot or opportunity, most female athletes spend the rest of their career terrified of losing it. This dynamic makes these women indebted to the organization or team that offered them the opportunity. The problem is, those in power within these organizations, teams, and companies understand how reliant these women are on their support and exploit this dependency. Often, this is shown through female athletes being given unfair pay or exploitative contracts. However, there is also increasing documentation on how prominent figures in athletic organizations use their unchecked power to sexually abuse or coerce female athletes, assuming these athletes on “the brink of the elite level ha[ve] invested the most and ha[ve] the most to lose by leaving. For her, the pressures to accede to sexual abuse are thought to be greatest”(Brackenridge, 2000, p. 192).
Only 0.4% of sports sponsorship was given to female athletes between 2011 and 2013
Athletes on the brink
Maggie Nichols
While you may not have heard of Maggie Nichols, you likely have heard of Larry Nassar and the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal that exploded in the press in 2016. The Indianapolis Star ran an exposé on Larry Nassar, the chief medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics from 1996 to 2015 (Kirby, 2018), and the failure of USA Gymnastics to properly report and address instances of sexual abuse. However, before the Indianapolis Star exposed Nassar to the world and dozens of sexual abuse allegations came to light, Maggie Nichols was the first athlete to officially report him to USA Gymnastics in 2015 (Novkov, 2018). Nichols was considered a shoo-in for the 2016 Olympic team. Soon after filing the report, however, she was cut from the Olympic team in what her coach could only rationalize as a “cover-up” on the part of USA Gymnastics (Stoia, 2020).
Her decision to report Nassar was a deeply personal one and led to repercussions that affected her on a personal level. Yet, on a larger scale, Nichol’s case represents the system of women’s sports that continuously fails to support female athletes economically, emotionally, and socially. Simone Biles also spoke out against Larry Nassar, but not until 2018 (Kirby, 2018) after winning gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016, which provided her with a level of fame and sponsorships that made her untouchable to USA Gymnastics. Biles has surpassed the point where the organization is able to make her feel that she is expendable, so she knew that her story would not endanger her career.
Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly
The National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) also made headlines in recent years for a sexual abuse scandal. Paul Riley, head coach of the Portland Thorns and later the North Carolina Courage, was fired in 2021 based on allegations of sexual assault and harassment. The allegations were first filed in 2015 by two of Riley’s players, Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly (Linehan, 2021). At the time Riley took advantage of them, Shim and Farrelly existed on the “brink” of the elite level of soccer. They were both new to professional soccer and working to get noticed by the national team so that they could have a sustainable career. After being sexually harassed by Riley, Shim confided in her NWSL teammate Alex Morgan and asked her to help report the incident. Morgan, one of the most famous athletes in the world, reflected on the process of attempting to aid Shim: “I tried everything to find an HR contact, a way through the league to anonymously report an incident, any sort of contact that would not be traced back to her because it would potentially jeopardize her job to report this sort of incident” (Linehan, 2021).
Morgan, by the time of Shim’s request in 2015, had already achieved a level of fame that allowed her to not be dependent on her NWSL team and salary. She, like Biles with USA Gymnastics, was one of a niche of female athletes who have the resources to fight against the structural issues of women’s sports.As Morgan alludes to, however, Shim was in a different position. By accusing Riley, Shim put her career and future at risk. Riley had the power to give Shim “many types of rewards” (Brackenridge, 2000, p. 191) and opportunities but also continued to have the power to bring her career crashing down, depending on how the institution handled the issue.
Personal Trouble? Or Structural Issue?
What is it about the “group climate” of women’s sports condones sexual abuse “either actively or passively” (Brackenridge, 2000, p. 191)? Morgan, in explaining her attempt to help Shim, alluded to the fact that there are deeply-rooted institutional problems that discourage female athletes, at least in the NWSL and USA Gymnastics, from reporting cases of sexual abuse. The precarious fame of many female athletes paired with the inability to report sexual harassment anonymously is a societal and structural issue, but takes a deep toll on the personal lives of female athletes everywhere. Female athletes spend their whole life training and pushing their bodies to their limits. However, unbeknownst to most people, female athletes across the world are putting their bodies at risk for their sport in a different way, everyday.
Works Cited
Brackenridge, C. (2000). Harassment, sexual abuse, and safety of the female athlete. Clinics in
Sports Medicine, 19(2), 187-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0278-5919(05)70198-8
Kirby, J. (2018, May 16). The sex abuse scandal surrounding USA Gymnastics team doctor
Larry Nassar, explained. Vox.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/19/16897722/sexual-abuse-usa-gymnastics-larry-
Linehan, M. (2021). ‘This guy has a pattern’: Amid institutional failure, former NWSL players
accuse prominent coach of sexual coercion. The New York Times.
Novkov, J. (2019). Law, Policy, and Sexual Abuse in the #MeToo Movement: USA Gymnastics
and the Agency of Minor Athletes. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 40(1), 42-74.
https://www-tandfonline-com.ez.hamilton.edu/doi/full/10.1080/1554477X.2019.1563412
Stoia, G. (2020, March, 15). Courageous: The Maggie Nichols story. OU Daily.
Women In Sport. (2021). Sponsorship & Media. Women In Sport.
