As a 15-year-old swimmer at the Sydney Olympic Games, Leisel Jones remembers being overwhelmed by the athletes’ village and “scared the whole time”. So she is delighted to see that chaperones will accompany the new wave of young teenagers who will compete for Australia at the Paris Games.
Australia’s 460-member Paris team features three athletes aged under 16, all skateboarders, and seven others who are under 18. This is the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games that the Australian team has included such young athletes.
But Arisa Trew and Chloe Covell, both 14, and Ruby Trew, 15 and not related to Arisa, are not only members of the Paris team, they are all medal contenders, having proven themselves in international competition in the lead-up to the Games. Times have changed in the two decades since Jones first competed, along with sports organisations’ understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities.
The three skateboarders will each be accompanied to the Games by a guardian, and they will all stay in a hotel rather than the athletes’ village, under a system devised by the Australian Olympic Committee for the Paris Games.
The International Olympic Committee introduced chaperone accreditations for athletes aged under 16 at the Tokyo Olympic Games, along with a safeguarding framework. The IOC has since expanded its safeguarding structure, establishing a safe sport unit within its health and science department in 2021.
For Paris the IOC is encouraging each national team to have a safeguarding officer and is offering two extra accreditations for welfare officers who have completed the governing body’s safeguarding certificate course.
The AOC’s chief of people and culture, Amie Wallis, will serve as the Australian team’s safeguarding officer in Paris along with four other designated welfare officers – two staff members and two clinical psychologists.
Wallis said safeguarding had become a priority issue within Australian sport since the final report of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse handed down its child safety recommendations in late 2017.
“Safeguarding has become really important,’’ Wallis said. “We have processes for the whole team, and then those for child safeguarding on top of that. We have done a child safety walkthrough with each sport [that includes minors in its team] to make sure they understand our guidelines.’’
Skateboarding has been a particular focus because of the extreme youth of some of its athletes. Wallis said the plan for the three youngsters had been developed in consultation with the sport and their parents. Hotel accommodation was determined to be the best solution for them.
“We want to make this experience as normal as possible for them, based on how they best travel to competitions normally.’’ Wallis said.
While the skateboarders will stay outside the athletes’ village, they will have the same access to the village as their teammates during the day and will be included in all team activities.
For the under-18s staying in the village (from the sports of swimming, diving, gymnastics and breaking), the team officials have paid particular attention to rooming arrangements and supervision to ensure the youngest team members are supported and protected.
“They will be in apartments where they are not sharing with anyone over the age of 18,’’ Wallis said.
Those apartments will also have a supervisor, and the young athletes will be required to take a buddy with them when they move around the village. They will also have a supervisor with them for any excursions outside the village (requiring consent from parents), or they can be checked out by their parents.
In the lead-up to the Games, the AOC is communicating not just with the underage athletes but with their parents as well. All team officials must have passed a working with children check.
Wallis said the AOC began building its safeguarding processes at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, then used that experience to develop its framework for the Olympic team.
Jones, who won the silver medal in the 100m breaststroke in 2000, said she did not recall that there was any extra support available for her in Sydney when she was “a shy little 15-year-old”.
“I don’t think there was much extra care taken,’’ Jones said. “Looking back I think it was pretty crazy and I was brave to be out there and doing it, because I was scared the whole time. The Olympic Village can be such an overwhelming place, even for older athletes. It’s full of adults so it’s not an easy place to be a kid.
“After the swimming finished, I remember being stuck in the village by myself a lot while everyone else went out to parties and clubs. There was no special focus on looking after me.
“At one stage I rang my mum and said I wanted to go home. I would have loved to have had a chaperone so I could have done more things. I think it’s good that they are now providing more help and support.’’
Jones went on to win nine Olympic medals, including two gold, and became the first Australian swimmer to compete at four Olympic Games, proving that even the youngest members of the team can end up having highly decorated careers.
