“All high-profile sportspeople suffer a level of public scrutiny and abuse but for women there is a whole extra sphere of horror,” says Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of Women In Sport, who has found the Raducanu incident “deeply troubling”.
In 2023 a UN handbook targeting violence against women and girls in sport found that “the sports ecosystem presents many barriers to tackling [the issue], including a lack of accountability, transparency and a defensive mindset.
Last year’s Olympics proved how valuable social media can be to sportswomen who lack the financial and media support that traditionally scaffolds men’s sport.
Danielle Collins may seem to have a thick hide on court – witness her performative antics at last month’s Australian Open – but she is “vigilant and cautious” in her real life after being stalked multiple times, both online and in person.
Nothing to do, then, with the screeds of social media abuse those same women’s tennis players receive on a daily basis from gamblers who have lost money on their games.
