Judy Murray's New Battle: Championing the Safeguarding of Athletes

| by Evita Mueller

Judy Murray is now an established author having published her novel 'The Wild Card' which tackles a very pertinent topic in sports.

Murray has a long history with sports and tennis, particularly as the 63-year-old served as the first coach for her sons Andy and Jamie. Both of them became professional players and established themselves among the best on Tour and the early influence from mother Judy proved crucial.

She's recently published a novel that tackles the topic of power abuse through the lens of a tennis player. It tells the story of a 17-year-old player who gets involved in a sexual relationship with her coach. The coach initiates the relationship while the player complies in fear of losing him.

It explores the power dynamic between a much older individual and a younger one. It's a fiction story, but Murray drew inspiration from many stories that have happened in the world of sports. Some of them happened in tennis, quite recently too.

Fiona Ferro, a French tennis player competing on the WTA Tour, spoke about her experience with her coach though that was a non-consensual relationship. Murray spoke about the topic during the promotion of her new book.

I think it’s up to all of the individual governing bodies to have someone in that head of safeguarding role that, whether you’re a coach, a parent, a player or in sports science, when you see something or if something happens to you, you know that that’s the group you go to, that’s the person you speak to, it will be treated in confidence but there will be action taken from it.

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There have been many stories that have been brushed under the carpet as Murray mentioned in her interview. There is a lack of systemic support because most of the time, the players affected don't know where to turn to. Murray further highlighted how important the role of the coach can become for young players which can create an unhealthy dynamic.

For me, having been round the women’s tour, it’s a very male-dominated domain in terms of the coaches and you realise that the young players in particular, they’re travelling all the time, they’re away from home, the coach becomes a crutch, not just a coach. You actually assume a parent role, a friend role.

The book Murray wrote hopes to bring the issue to the forefront helping raising awareness. We've seen it happen already as it's still relatively new. Hopefully, some practices will put in place so that these things stop happening in the future or at the very least get reduced to a minimum.

But at the end of the day, you can raise awareness, but you need somebody to act on that. And that is starting to happen, but it’s probably still in its relative infancy.

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