What Does Sexual Assault Prevention Actually Mean in Sport?

Following on from the conversation around Sexual Assault Awareness Month, it’s clear that while awareness exists, prevention isn’t always as well understood.

"Prevention" is a word that gets used a lot. It appears in policies, statements, and safeguarding guidelines. Most people would agree that it’s important. But when you step away from the language around it, the question becomes much simpler...

What does prevention actually look like in practice?

Forget the theory or the documents. Let’s look at the day-to-day environments where people are working, training, and interacting regularly.

Because prevention isn’t one thing. It’s not a single action or a single responsibility. It’s a combination of behaviours, awareness, and standards that shape the environment people are part of.

In equestrian settings especially, there’s a level of closeness that doesn’t always exist elsewhere. Long hours, small teams, one-to-one coaching, travel, shared spaces. Over time, those dynamics become normal.

Which means behaviour can become normal too - whether it’s appropriate or not.

That’s where prevention either works, or it doesn’t. 

At its most basic level, prevention is about recognising what is acceptable, what isn’t, and having the confidence to act on that understanding. Not just when something is clearly wrong, but earlier - when something simply feels “off”.

It’s also about consistency.

Standards can’t change depending on the setting, the person, or the level someone is operating at. What’s acceptable in one yard should be acceptable in another. What applies to a junior rider should apply just as much to someone at the top of the sport.

Without that consistency, things become subjective. And when things become subjective, boundaries become easier to cross.

Prevention also relies on visibility.

Not just in the sense of awareness campaigns, but in how behaviour is seen, addressed, and responded to in everyday situations. If something is overlooked repeatedly, it stops being noticed altogether.

That’s often how environments shift without anyone realising.

And finally, prevention depends on people understanding where they stand.

Who is responsible for what. What their role is within that environment. And what they are expected to do if something doesn’t sit right.

Because without that clarity, responsibility becomes unclear - and when responsibility is unclear, it tends to fall away.

None of this is complicated, but it does need attention.

It requires people to be aware of what’s happening around them, to understand the standards that should be in place, and to recognise when those standards aren’t being met.

That’s where prevention starts to take shape. Not in reaction to something serious, but in the everyday moments that come before it.

If anything in this article feels familiar or has brought a personal experience to mind, you don’t have to navigate it on your own. Reaching out to your local crisis centre or support service can be a first step in speaking to someone who understands and can offer professional guidance in a safe, confidential way.