Safeguarding in Event Medical Care

Event medical care is a service. Someone trips, falls, and medics come to assess and/or treat that person. That's the easy and simple version.

The actual work is far more messier - especially in sports.

Athletes are not always neutral patients. They have trained weeks, maybe months, for their performance on games day. Or to qualify for a ranking or award. Or avoid disappointing their team, parents, coaches, etc. Coaches are impatiently and eagerly waiting for an answer whether their star athlete can return to the pitch ASAP. The athlete may be young, embarrassed, and unsure of how much they are allowed to say, and whether what they say can affect their return to play.

Sport has its own safeguarding risks because athletes sit inside a web of pressure and power imbalances.

Scenario	Risk
A coach may control team selection, competition entry, or future opportunities	Power Imbalance
An athlete may feel they have to prove they are tough enough to continue	Performance Pressure
A junior athlete may accept poor treatment from seniors because they think it is part of team culture	Normalised Hierachy
A senior figure may be trusted simply because they are successful	Hero Worship
A trainer or medic may need to have physical contact during stretching, taping, or injury checks	Physical Access
An athlete may be wearing minimal sports attire	Exposure and Dignity Risk
An athlete may stay silent because they fear being blamed, dropped, mocked, or labelled as difficult	Retaliation Risk
A young or inexperienced athlete may not know what is normal in coaching, treatment, or team discipline	Knowledge Gap

None of these things mean misconduct will happen. In fact, most of these scenarios happen every tournament or practice session. But they do mean the environment needs clear boundaries. In sport, inappropriate behaviour can be disguised as coaching, treatment, discipline, team culture, or "how things have always been".

This is why safeguarding matters.

It has to be built into ordinary moments: how we speak to athletes, how we examine injuries, how we protect privacy, how we handle return-to-play pressure, and how we respond when something feels wrong. For a medical team, the question is not only “what is the injury?” It is also “how do we assess this person properly without making them feel exposed, pressured, or unsafe?” The medic may need to ask questions, examine an area, adjust clothing, or advise withdrawal from play. These situations show where professional standards matter.

Safeguarding = upholding professional standards

Good safeguarding means explaining what needs to be checked and why.

It means keeping physical contact limited to what is clinically needed; such as using towels, jackets, positioning, screens, or another staff member where possible to protect dignity.

It means offering a chaperone when the situation calls for one, especially for minors, vulnerable athletes, opposite-gender care, sensitive assessments, or treatment in a quieter area.

It also means understanding that medical authority can be misused if there are no boundaries. A medical encounter should stay clinical; no unnecessary personal questions, no comments about an athlete’s body or attire, no personal contact that blurs the line between care and personal attention.

There is also the pressure around return-to-play. In sport, “Can I continue?” is not always a simple question. Most times the athlete wants to hear yes. Sometimes everyone around them wants to hear yes. The medical team’s responsibility is not to keep the game moving, but it is to make the safer call based on the athlete’s condition. That may mean advising an athlete to stop playing, escalating care, or refusing to clear someone who is not fit to continue. Those decisions can be unpopular in the moment: yet they are still part of the job.

Confidentiality is another part people often overlook at events. Medical information should not become casual conversation at the field of play. Details should only be shared with people who need to know, such as emergency services, parents or guardians, event officials involved in safety, or those responsible for ongoing care.

Safeguarding also means knowing when something is no longer just a medical issue. If an athlete discloses abuse, harassment, unsafe coaching, pressure to play through injury, inappropriate contact, or fear of retaliation, the medical team should respond calmly, document appropriately, and report it through the right channel. The role is not to investigate. The role is to protect, escalate, and avoid making the situation worse.

How care is given matters as much as what care is given.

This thinking is part of how we approach sports coverage. The medical team is often placed in moments where athletes may be vulnerable, exposed, pressured, or uncertain. We're not limited to just applying dressings or activating an ambulance. Athletes should be able to seek help without feeling embarrassed, judged, rushed, exposed, or rushed into play.