The optimistic tone of the UK Sport hierarchy as they presented the results of what they called a “culture health check” has rarely been heard over the last two years as they lurched from one duty-of-care crisis to another.

Barely a corner of the system has been left untouched by allegations of bullying, discrimination and favouritism – from cycling to gymnastics, canoeing and bobsleigh, to mention just a few. Now Chelsea Warr, the performance director of UK Sport, has claimed this survey of more than 2,000 elite athletes and staff across the Olympic spectrum is proof that those problems are not endemic in the system.

Some results do reflect favourably on the funding body, with more than 90% of the 682 athletes who responded to a 45-question survey reporting they felt proud to be part of the “world class programme”. Similar numbers said they felt individuals operating within their sport have the best intentions.

Cyclist Jess Varnish says Shane Sutton told her to ‘go and have a baby’ Read more

But this does not tell the whole story. The partially celebratory vibe could not obscure the more grim findings, notably that 30% – almost one in three athletes – had experienced or witnessed unacceptable behaviour.

James Bell, a psychologist at UK Sport, said what was deemed unacceptable varied vastly between athletes, noting that one respondent had complained they were not allowed to train because they showed up with the wrong kit.

Perhaps even more stark was that 31% feared reprisals, whether this be missing out on selection or being punished in another way, should they give negative feedback.

The athlete welfare crisis in Olympic sport was ignited by the sprint cyclist Jess Varnish in the run-up to the Rio Olympics in 2016. She alleged the former British Cycling performance director Shane Sutton told her that her bum was “too big” to cycle certain roles on the team and after dropping her from the squad that she should “get on with having a baby”. The Guardian has since revealed a host of issues infecting other sports with allegations of racism in British Bobsleigh and abuse in British Gymnastics and British Canoeing. The staff and athletes who have blown the whistle often have one thing in common and that is that they have recently left the system.

Inside British Bobsleigh: a toxic culture which left athletes afraid to speak up | Sean Ingle Read more

Liz Nicholl, the UK Sport chair, conceded the apparent fear culture within some sections of the system still existed, preventing some active athletes from speaking out.

“That is a concern,” she said. “It is a significant number fearing the consequences. That’s something we’ll follow up with the sports. It’s about having an open relationship based on mutual respect.”

UK Sport, which will invest up to £345m of exchequer and lottery money in Olympic and Paralympic sport from 2017-2021, has also pledged an extra £1m to the British Athletes Commission. The body is run independently and represents athletes but has been massively under-resourced, struggling to cope with a growing number of athletes with grievances.

The results of the survey, which athletes were allowed 12 weeks to respond to, did not suggest any marked difference in the contentedness of female athletes compared with their male counterparts. But anecdotally, coaches say they have modified their style to work with women’s teams.

Danny Kerry, who led the women’s hockey team to Olympic gold in Rio, said in a previous review he had been criticised for being overly aggressive.

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“It’s not very PC to say this but in my experience there are differences between working with large groups of elite male and elite female athletes,” he said. “Women can sometimes take things to heart. Men can be like that too but generally they have the ability to depersonalise it.

“In the Beijing cycle I made one athlete’s experience pretty brutal and really miserable and they nearly left the programme.

“I don’t think I’d be facing a tribunal but I got it wrong. One of the several lightbulb moments was when the chief executive and performance director brought me in here after Beijing and showed me slides from the athletes’ debrief. They said I was tactically bang on but they hated me.

“I was ready to throw it in because I thought I had given my all for them and they had shoved knives in me. I spoke to my wife about it and said: ‘I’m not that person, why am I doing this?’ She told me I wasn’t that person but I had to make the shift.”