Stabilization of heterodimensional cycles

We consider diffeomorphisms $f$ with heteroclinic cycles associated to saddles $P$ and $Q$ of different indices. We say that a cycle of this type can be stabilized if there are diffeomorphisms close to $f$ with a robust cycle associated to hyperbolic sets containing the continuations of $P$ and $Q$. We focus on the case where the indices of these two saddles differ by one. We prove that, excluding one particular case (so-called twisted cycles that additionally satisfy some geometrical restrictions), all such cycles can be stabilized.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figure

International experience counts

Through a semi-biographical account, this paper addresses the links between the speaker's career and internationalism

Exposing the ‘Olympic family’: a review of progress towards understanding risk factors for sexual victimisation in sport

Sport organisations, including the Olympic movement, frequently invoke the concept of ‘family’ to describe their allegedly close and supportive social systems. However, the family metaphor backfires when sexual exploitation in sport is uncovered. Media coverage of high profile cases of sexual abuse against athletes by their coaches has prompted recent policy responses in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia but, relative to clinical and therapeutic settings, academic research into sexual exploitation in sport is only in its infancy. This paper reviews the empirical and theoretical advances in sport-based sexual abuse research, contrasting these with ‘mainstream’ data and theories. It examines whether elite sport, as a surrogate family setting for the talented young athlete, might be a distinctive location for sexual exploitation

Healthy sport for healthy girls? The role of parents in preventing sexual abuse in sport.

Sexual abuse has only recently been recognised as a problem within sport (Brackenridge 1994) and, as yet, little is known about the contexts in which girls might be at greater or lesser risk of experiencing such crimes. This papers explores the assumptions which parents make about their daughters’ health and safety in the sports coaching context in relation to Hellestedt’s (1987) Parentlal Involvement Continuum. Data from a study of 93 sets of parents of elite young sportswomen are presented which show what much mothers and fathers know about their daughters’ coaching setting. The results are used to evaluate the extent to which parents’ assumptions about sport as a healthy place for healthy girls are warranted. Research on sexual abuse prevention in day care settings (Finkelhor & Williams 1988) is explored as a possible template for parents who wish to contribute to the prevention of sexual abuse of girls in sport

Children or athletes? Best practice for safeguarding elite young athletes

This address explores the status confusion between “child” and “athlete” that arises in elite sport for young people and discuss some of the challenges that this presents to sport providers. It reviews the evidence about breaches of child welfare in sport around the world and considers how the sport community can respond positively to this evidence in both policy and practice

Managing myself: investigator survival in sensitive research

Thirteen years of investigative research into sexual abuse in sport provides the basis for this paper, in which reflections are offered about the role and survival of the investigator in sensitive research. The ethical ground rules, research methods and working practices adopted during this research have all been influenced by processes well beyond conventional social science. The paper interrogates three meanings of ‘managing myself’ as a lesbian engaged in a gendered research process: first, managing myself, coping with the strains and stresses of the research; secondly, managing (by) myself as being alone in the research; and thirdly, managing my ‘self/selves’, deciding which of several possible selves or agendas - the personal, the scientific or the political – is being addressed at any given time. The paper ends by considering how to maintain focus in the face of internal doubts and external pressures

Sexual harassment in sports

The purpose of this talk today is to give you an overview of the current state of research on sexual harassment in sport and to raise questions about the links between harassment, sexual abuse and women's health and safety is sport