Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Elise Christie & Mark Clattenburg
Every week we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.
HIT - ELISE CHRISTIE
October is Mental Health Month in the UK and over the past year, sport has been at the forefront of making it acceptable to discuss emotional wellbeing.
Scottish speed skater Elise Christie is one of the latest to share raw emotions, and recently opened up about a rape ordeal she endured many years ago and the effect it has had on her mental health in the years since.
Along with her struggles with self-harm and medicating, Christie has also previously been open about taking breaks from social media, having often been the victim of online trolls.
Christie, a triple world champion, was expected to win medals in both 2014 and 2018, but crashes and disqualifications meant she was known for her disappointments far more than her successes.
Trolling even made her consider giving up on her beloved sport altogether after the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 and revealed last year how she almost took her own life in 2018. She began to see a psychologist due to the intense mental suffering that the online abuse and bullying caused.
She explained: "For me it was a big step to even talk about the assault in the first place. I’ve always talked about the fact that I want to help people. There are so many women who have gone through or who might be going through this same situation right now and won’t speak up either.
"I just constantly felt like a medal winning machine for a while, like a robot. I wish I hadn’t got to the point where I felt so undervalued as a human being. That came from a lot of things. Sport was a part of it, how I was handled and the fact that my well-being was never a top priority.
"I was always doubting myself. Part of it was the fact that the mental health side was so new in sport. I didn’t even understand it myself yet."
Christie’s brave decision to re-live her traumas comes at a time when women’s safety is a prominent topic of conversation.
Not only have the revelations about Sarah Everard’s horrific murder recently come to light, but the response to the news has sparked major debate about the current state of women’s safety.
The conversation has shown no signs of slowing down since the initial explosion of social media posts in March, with many either relating to the London Metropolitan Police’s mishandling of the case, the heavy tone of victim blaming that has appeared rife throughout the past few months, or simply encouraging men to take positive action.
Christie, like many other high profile figures, has realised that with the voice and the platform that her sporting career has afforded her, she has the power to start these open, honest and often uncomfortable conversations.
Sharing her story will undoubtedly encourage other women, in sport and beyond, to do the same.
During the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer, Simone Biles also used her platform to open a conversation about mental health within sports, after she withdrew from the team gymnastics final. Biles, like Christie, advocates putting mental health above anything else, even including the Olympic Games, particularly after the abuse she suffered at the hands of former team USA doctor, Larry Nassar that continue to affect her.
If one thing can be taken from the horrific ordeals Christie and Biles have faced, it’s that mental health must be taken more seriously in sports. Whilst sport and exercise is often considered to be a massive benefit to mental health, it’s no surprise that the pressures of high level competition can add additional challenges.
Thankfully, due to the bravery of sports people like Christie, mental health welfare is quickly becoming a priority for so many people.
Christie acknowledges the effect her mental health has had on her sport performance as she prepares for the next Winter Olympic Games which take place in Beijing next year.
Whilst still hopeful about the 2022 Games, she says that the competition is no longer about winning for her.
For Christie on a personal level, the real victory is being able to set an example for other women who are struggling - and help them to see that turning your life around is possible.
She added: “It won’t just be about medalling. I also want to be the girl who helped others turn their lives around and the girl who has turned her life around and has come back. That’s why I try to set that example."
MISS – MARK CLATTENBURG
Women’s football has enjoyed a long-overdue resurgence in recent years.
Barclays bank announced that they would become the title sponsor of the Women’s Super League while this year Sky Sports and the BBC announced a landmark deal which will see over 60 games broadcast over the course of the season.
This comes soon after the hugely successful 2019 Women’s World Cup which saw a significant growth in participation at all levels as England reached the semi-finals.
We have even seen a female referee, Stephanie Frappart, make history as the first female to referee a men's UEFA Champions League match, the game between Juventus and Dynamo Kiev in Turin.
But former referee Mark Clattenburg has set back gender equality in football by a few decades by suggesting that female referees must choose between their career and pregnancy.
Speaking on talkSPORT radio, Clattenburg said: “We always had a [female] assistant referee in the Premier League, Sian Massey[-Ellis], and we now have a woman refereeing in the Football League, Rebecca Welch, so women are starting to develop in the men's game.
"If you look at UEFA, for example, the French woman refereed the Super Cup final, so UEFA are getting more and more women.
"The problem with women is, and certainly in refereeing in football, they have a difficult pathway if they get pregnant during their refereeing career - it can stop them a long way. So they have to make this choice: do they want to be pregnant or do they want to be referees?
"They also have to pass the men's fitness tests and a lot of women struggle with the men's fitness tests; because, if you want to be in the men's game, you have to meet that criteria.
"If they pass all this and then choose the right path, I believe that women should be involved in the men's game as well as women being involved in the women's game. When you look at the Women's Super League, for example, there have been some high-profile mistakes. Why not bring in the best referees if you have the best leagues?
"Certainly, when you have a baby, you're out nine or 10 months and then you'll take another six months to recover from your body, so therefore it's nearly two years. And to pass that men's fitness test is very, very demanding."
Women in Football CEO Jane Purdon was quick to condemn Clattenburg’s remarks, stating: “Mark says "the problem with women" is having to choose between carrying a child and their refereeing career, and that being pregnant "can cost you two or three years of your life.
"Women in all professions face challenges in balancing work and family. So do many men - but for men this is never seen as a problem, and men are never expected to choose between the two.
"In fact, many women in elite sport are in a position to resume their sporting careers quickly after giving birth. Others take more time out - by choice or by necessity. Neither of these scenarios is a "problem". The real problem is assumptions about female biology, and gender roles in childcare, which are lazy, outdated or plain false."
Clattenburg is on a charm offensive at the moment, opening the curtain to the mysterious world of football refereeing and dishing the dirt on many of his former officiating colleagues.
He had a fantastic career, taking charge of the 2012 Olympic Games men's final; the 2016 FA Cup final; the 2016 UEFA Champions League final as well as the final of EURO 2016 in France.
He’s no stranger to controversy, though, having been sacked as a referee and then reinstated after what amounted to an eight-month ban after "issues relating to his private business affairs.”
He was then accused of racially abusing Jon Obi Mikel during Chelsea’s 3-2 defeat against Manchester United in 2012, a claim he was later cleared of.
He was also dropped from the Premier League roster after breaking protocol to go and watch Ed Sheeran in concert, with rules dictating that officials must travel to and from the ground together to ensure ther integrity and security.
He admitted speaking to manager Neil Warnock on his car phone, again in contravention of officiating rules and claimed in his book that he was investigated for suspected match-fixing after buying an expensive car and on the field, famously missed Pedro Mendes’ ‘ghost goal’.
Clattenburg shocked the footballing world when at the peak of his success, he quit the Premier League for a lucrative advisory role in Saudi Arabia.
His book tour was supposed to set the record straight and revise opinions amongst fans who might have considered Clattenburg arrogant or a lose cannon.
He has since tried to clarify what he meant, suggesting that it was clumsy rather than sexist but sadly, his latest comments play into lazy stereotypes that society and sport have sought so hard to expunge.