Local Olympian Addresses Athlete Abuse

A former Olympic athlete from Kahnàwake is calling for an inquiry into amateur sport in Canada to address systemic sexual, physical and verbal abuse of athletes. Waneek Horn-Miller is the former co-captain of Canada’s Olympic women’s water polo team who was testifying yesterday in front of MPs in Ottawa about abuse in sport:

“I guess I was speaking from, obviously a place of experience and love of sport. I love sport it has played such an important role in my life, but you know, in water polo, once I made the elite team, of making the national team and the Olympic teams, I talked about the abuse and then what I tried to do myself and some of my teammates tried to do to stop it.”

On advice for future athletes, Horn-Miller has sage advice:

“I encourage them to always to keep in their mind’s eye, when they’re going about their work, that young athletes that’s going into the system and the parents and the families that trust them that they don’t just see them as dollar signs and potential NHL or Olympic team athletes, but they see every single one of them as equally important and should be treated with a ton of respect and that they leave that sport feeling honoured and a better person, more well-rounded. I don’t want them to leave the system anymore feeling used, abused and hurt.”

The testifying was done in front of a parliamentary committee on the status of women looking at girls in sport.