© Copyright – 2025 – Athletics Illustrated
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe is seeking better processes to protect female athletes from online abuse. There seems to be an increase in negative behavior.
Coe said that he would ask “Space X founder and X (fmr: Twitter) owner Elon Musk and Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg to solve the concerns over social media abuse directed largely at female athletes.
Coe’s concerns come in the wake of tennis sensation Emma Raducanu’s recent stalking allegations.
“Sort this out. This is just unacceptable. We’ve got to do a whole heap more. I’ve seen the distress this has caused. It’s pond life, and I’ve spoken to many of the female athletes about it. Some of the stuff, you just want to cry listening to it,” Coe told The Daily Mail.
Emma Raducanu
In 2022, a man named Amrit Magar was found guilty of stalking Raducanu at her home. Raducanu said that “the incidents made her feel unsafe in her house and concerned about going out alone.” That same year, the offender was sentenced to community service and given a five-year restraining order.
On Feb. 19, 2025, a man who had approached her and was described by the WTA as having “exhibited fixated behaviour” was spotted in the crowd during one of her matches in Dubai. Raducanu was shaken and began to cry. He was removed from the stadium and subsequently banned from all WTA events. The man was reported to have given Raducanu a letter at her hotel prior to the match. He signed a restraining order committing to distancing from Raducanu on Feb. 20.
Shades of Monica Seles being stabbed with a knife during a match.
Coe, “You should care….”
He continued, “I remember an athlete saying to me, ‘I just don’t care anymore,” and I said, ‘You should care, you should be really angry about this stuff.”
What you don’t want is people just thinking you get to the highest level in female sport, and it’s sort of what happens. We should not accept it as being sort of standard practice.”
“It’s not new, but there’s just more of it. There’s a huge element of social media that’s actually an act of cowardice. It’s saying stuff that you can probably say because it’s anonymous and you wouldn’t say it to somebody’s face.”
Athletics Illustrated agree that Musk and Zuckerberg should act now and that biased far-left and biased far-right media should be monitored and reported when publishing willfully inaccurate information.
