Why Haven’t We Figured Out How to Protect Women Athletes?

For women athletes, even the court feels unsafe. At the Dubai Tennis Championships on Feb. 18, professional tennis player Emma Raducanu was seen wiping away tears after spotting her stalker in the stands. The man was eventually ejected and given a restraining order due to what Dubai police called “fixated behavior.” But why is 22-year-old Raducanu having to deal with her second stalker in three years? “That man was assessing the situation and looking for the best moment to get closer to her,” said Raducanu’s former coach Roman Kelecic. “He had a strategy that was terrifying.”

For women athletes, stalking and harassment isn’t new (and not uncommon). In 2022, an entirely different man received a five-year restraining order after walking 23 miles to Raducanu’s home. Similarly, in 2011, a man was caught outside the gates of Serena Williams’s property and charged with stalking. In a January TikTok, Olympian Gabby Thomas also spoke about a group of men following and harassing her in airports across the country. In the comments, fellow athletes Simone Biles, Coco Gauff, and Suni Lee all recalled similar scenarios.

On a broader scale, according to an October 2024 study from the NCAA, women basketball players receive three times more threats than men players. Likewise, at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, a study from World Athletics found that women athletes were the target of 87 percent of all online abuse. It’s clear that women athletes continue to experience a disproportionate amount of harassment. So why haven’t we figured out what to do about it?

“Women basketball players receive three times more threats than men players.”

Maybe it’s because people aren’t convinced these threats will manifest as actual violence. To that, we say, look to Monica Seles: the former professional tennis player who was stabbed in the back during a tennis match in April 1993. According to the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC), stalking victims also experience significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and social dysfunction. Forty-six percent of victims believe it will never get better, and 67 percent fear being killed or physically harmed.

Still, there is some hope amid all the news. Raducanu is set to return to the Indian Wells Open in March, and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) is said to be “actively working with Emma and her team” to provide adequate security, per the Guardian. Britain’s governing board of tennis — known as the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) — has also promised to provide “extensive” security arrangements for upcoming matches in the UK. “This incident once again highlights issues around safety that all players, but female players in particular, can face,” the LTA said. “We have extensive security arrangements at our events in Britain and keep these under constant review.”

We cannot sit and wait for threats and harassment to escalate into physical violence. The vitriol women athletes face is already taking a toll on their mental health . . . and evidently it’s not something they can escape on the court. Extra security measures are a good start, but we need to start taking threats, stalking, and harassment seriously before it escalates. The bottom line? Women athletes deserve safe spaces — it’s high time we deliver.

Chandler Plante (she/her) is an assistant health and fitness editor for PS. She has over four years of professional journalism experience, previously working as an editorial assistant for People magazine and contributing to Ladygunn, Millie, and Bustle Digital Group.