About The Network
The Athletes Network for Safer Sports is a program of the Sport & Rights Alliance, developed based on the findings of in-depth study and needs assessment consultation with survivors of abuse in sports.
Who we are
We are athletes, allies, survivors, victims and whistleblowers with a mission to create and strengthen safe spaces for people affected by abuse in sport – promoting healing, amplifying each other’s voices, and advocating for systemic change.
Our leadership
Meet our Advisory Council – a group of athletes and allies responsible for providing the Network with overall programmatic guidance and strategic support.
Jessica Shuran Yu
Jessica Shuran Yu (she/they) is a former competitive figure-skater who was the first to represent Singapore at World Championships. They are now a journalist, studying at the Toni Stabile Centre for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University. They are dedicated to telling stories and amplifying minority voices, both as a former athlete and a current journalist.
Kaiya McCullough
Kaiya McCullough (she/her) is a current student at Harvard Law School and former professional soccer player in the U.S. Throughout her playing career she was heavily involved in activism both on and off the field, becoming one of the first college athletes to kneel in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. She is passionate about Black liberation, abolition, anti-capitalism, and how the intersection of those topics leads to solidarity across social movement.
Ahmar Maiga
Ahmar Abdoulaye MAIGA (he/him) is the Founder and Executive director of the non-profit organization Young Players Protection Association in Africa – Mali (YPPA-Mali). He’s a dedicated defender of human rights who has stood up to powerful officials to tirelessly advocate for justice for young survivors of sexual abuse and harassment in Mali and around the world.
Mary Cain
Mary Cain (she/her) is a track and field athlete pursuing an MD degree at Stanford University School of Medicine. After sharing her 2019 Op-Ed in the New York Times, Mary has dedicated her career to driving change in sport, with an emphasis on athlete well-being and gender equity. She is a board member for The Army of Survivors.
Gabriela Garton
Dr Gabriela Garton (she/her) is a former professional football player, who also played for the Argentina National Football Team. She is a Player Relations Coordinator at the World Players Asso-ciation and leads their work on women’s sports, and is an experienced researcher on women’s football and gender inequality, with a PhD in Social Studies from the University of Buenos Aires.
Joanna Maranhão
Joanna (she/her) is a Brazilian Olympian, survivor, advocate and researcher, and the coordinator of the Athletes Network for Safer Sports. As a professional swimmer, Joanna specialized in individual medley and distance events, participating in four Olympic Games and winning eight medals at the Pan American Games. Joanna led the campaign to expand Brazil’s statutes of limitation to allow survivors of child sexual abuse more time to report and seek justice, succeeding in establishing a new law, which bears her name (the Joanna Maranhão Law).
Learn how to get involved
What we do
The Network offers a range of activities for athletes, whistleblowers and allies impacted by abuse in sport, including collective campaigns and solidarity, advocacy training and support, wellbeing support and resources, research analysis and exchange, and an emergency fund for survivors needing urgent assistance.
Our mission
To create and strengthen safe spaces for people affected by abuse in sport to further healing, amplify each other’s voices, and advocate for systemic change.
Our vision
A world where all can participate in sport free from abuse of any kind, where internationally recognized safeguarding standards are upheld, and a culture of agency, inclusion, wellbeing, is achieved.
Goals
1
Healing
To provide safe space, information, funding, and greater access to individual and collective support for survivors and their allies.
2
Voice
To ensure that athletes and allies impacted by abuse in sport have a voice and a vote at the highest levels of sport governance where policy decisions affecting their lives are being made.
3
Accountability
To increase pressure for and strengthen the development of trauma-informed and survivor-led global sport policy and governance structures that ensure accountability.
4
Sustainability
To build a resourceful, resilient, and sustainable movement that can support these efforts and the long-term wellbeing of athlete advocates.
Theory of change
By creating safe spaces for people impacted by violence in sports, we build connection and power among impacted athletes, whistleblowers and allies to drive systemic change and make sports safe for all.
Sport has the potential to be a catalyst for human development, unity, and freedom, but too often it instead brings harm to athletes, fans, workers, journalists and communities. We exist to uncover and rectify the many abuses that exist both in and around sport – and transform sport into an authentic force for good.