Résumé
We promote sport as a safe and healthful activity that is beneficial for development and well-being; yet organized, competitive sport requires individuals (i.e., athletes, coaches, officials, etc.) to expose themselves to and assume certain risk(s). ‘Safe sport’ is the protection of individuals’ rights to participate in sport free of harm or danger via policy, education, and training (Donnelly et al., 2022; Stirling et al., 2023). As a concept, ‘safe sport’ occupies space in public consciousness and carries tremendous emotional and symbolic value. And yet, to date, there has been an absence of critical evaluation of the very concept of safety in sport that is being assumed in safe sport initiatives, policies, and related formal documents. Thus, the purpose of this study is to further explore safety, and by extension, risk, in sport within policies and/or formal documents and to better understand how the two concepts are negotiated, leveraged, and implemented. Thirty sport policies (i.e., Harassment Policy, Rowan’s Law, Anti-Doping Policy, etc.) and formal guiding documents (i.e., Match Official Code of Conduct, Child Protetion Incident Report Procedures, Air Quality Guidelines, etc.) were analyzed via Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). All documents were publicly available and accessed through Rugby Ontario’s website. This study provides both theoretical and practical implications on the nuances and complexities of safety, and by extension, risk, in sport and inform more robust policies and safety practices in rugby, respectively. Ultimately, contributing to the necessary discussions on how to achieve Canada’s goal of a safe sport for all.
