Canada’s national governing body for Olympic-style wrestling has a “long history” of tolerating sexual relationships between national team coaches and athletes, and has no mechanism for reporting abuse — exposing athletes to potentially predatory behaviour and sexual harassment, according to an independent investigation into the organization’s culture.

Wrestling Canada Lutte (WCL) hired lawyer David Bennett to review coaching practices within the sport earlier this year, following two anonymous complaints of sexual abuse, including allegations that “a convicted sex offender and another person accused of a sex offence were present” at a wrestling event in one province.

While investigating the sexual abuse complaints was not in Bennett’s mandate, his final report uncovered a wide range of problems, including “insufficient safeguards to protect minors” from sexual abuse, sexism, psychological abuse, and a “pattern of physical abuse that has become normalized.”

“They scream and curse at us,” one athlete is quoted in the report said. “They do not see us as humans.”

In a post to WCL’s website Monday, the organization’s board said it had decided to share the report in full “to rebuild the trust required to work together in strengthening our culture.”

“As the directors of WCL, we empathize and express remorse to all those affected by the unhealthy and unsafe practices that were identified,” the post said.

Read the full report: Independent Review of Coaching Culture for Wrestling Canada Lutte

The WCL selects and trains Canada’s teams for international competitions, including the Olympics. It partners with university wrestling programs, and is also at the helm of 13 provincial and territorial wrestling associations with club systems.

Executive director Tamara Medwidsky told the Star that the organization had made “immediate commitments” to address the report’s findings, including contracting an external facilitator to meet with national team athletes this week about safe sporting practices.

The report relied on interviews with 54 witnesses at four national training centres in Montreal, St. Catharines, Calgary and Vancouver. Athletes were given anonymity in the report because of what Bennett described as widespread fear of reprisal, rooted in “suspicion and distrust” of WCL’s head office. In one email cited in the report, a national centre coach characterized WCL as creating a “culture of consequence-free sexual misconduct.”

Bennett’s report noted that the organization’s current code of conduct permitted sexual relationships between coaches and athletes, which the report found was a source of deep concern and even anger among WCL members, some of whom believed sexual relationships were used to advance or punish certain athletes.

“Relationships involving staff and coaches with each other or with athletes should be prohibited on the basis that they create the perception of a conflict of interest,” the report said.

The report found there was also no mechanism to report harassment or abuse, and that the organization did not require coaches to undergo a vulnerable sector check. No records were kept of whether coaches were in good standing in their province, leaving “young and vulnerable athletes exposed to the risk that someone with a history of sexual abuse could be coaching them.”

Psychological abuse was the most common issue identified by those interviewed in the report, with athletes describing coaches who sought to control their personal lives outside the gym, derided them publicly even after competitive success, or refused to speak to them for days, weeks, and in one case decades after a perceived wrongdoing.

“There is a very serious concern is that athletes are being broken down and being left broken without having been built back up,” Bennett found.

The report also “investigated and substantiated” allegations of coaches “hitting, grabbing and pushing athletes,” and found that “many athletes described how they feel powerless to respond or to defend themselves.”

“This is because of the power coaches exert over their athletes.”

Women wrestlers also detailed a pattern of sexism at the organization, and described feeling like “second-class citizens.”

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“In one example, (a) coach discovered that two of the athletes were in a relationship and so began asking the male, with other athletes present, how the female athlete is in the kitchen, if she finished doing his laundry and if she was keeping him “satisfied,” the report said.

Lack of transparency and suspicion of WCL headquarters contributed to athletes feeling unable to report issues, Bennett found, along with the “perception that the culture of WCL that never changes and that its members protect each other.”

The report makes numerous recommendations including:

A prohibition on sexual relationships at the organization

Mandatory vulnerable sector checks for staff and coaches

A clear and independent complaints process

An annual review of safety policies

Improved training for coaches, including sexual harassment training

In its Monday post, the WCL said it would implement the recommendations, and Medwidsky told the Star that the organization was motivated to “do right by the athletes.”

“We’re absolute committed to working with the athletes and coaches proactively,” she said. “It’s going to be a process and not necessarily one end point destination.”

Bennett concludes the report by saying that despite his findings, “the level of dedication and the hard work that every one of the interviewees I met showed impresses me.”

“Every person involved with WCL is committed to making wrestling a better sport and to building on the success it has already achieved.”