MELBOURNE, July 20 (Reuters) – Australia has set up a fund to compensate athletes who suffered harm or abuse during their time at the country’s premier sports training facility.
The fund, launched by the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) on Wednesday, will offer payments of up to A$50,000 (US$34,500) to athletes who have been awarded scholarships at the Canberra-based Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), between 1981 and 2013.
“Nearly 9,000 athletes received AIS scholarships between 1981 and 2013, and while we know many people had a positive experience, unfortunately some athletes were treated inappropriately,” ASC President Josephine Sukkar said in a statement.
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“The program was established to help our former athletes report and raise concerns directly with the ASC about practices in the AIS that were detrimental to their well-being. See the article : College Football 2.0: Players primed the future influence of the sport as NIL, athletes ’rights extend.”
The AIS stopped offering scholarships after 2013.
The fund’s announcement comes more than a year after the ASC issued a general apology to athletes who suffered historic abuses in the AIS.
The AIS is being sued by a number of former gymnasts who have claimed they were mistreated while training there.
Australia’s gymnastics federation apologized to athletes last year after the country’s human rights body investigated complaints of physical and mental abuse. see More information
ASC Chief Executive Kieren Perkins urged athletes to contact the ASC’s “Restorative Program” if they sustain damage due to time in the AIS.
The program also provides counseling and “support services” for affected athletes.
“Abuse of any kind has no place in Australian sport,” said Perkins, a former Olympic champion swimmer.
($1 = 1.4499 Australian dollars)
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Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Christian Schmollinger Read also : Pakistan’s political pressure, not the grassroots – finmin.
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