Geneviève Jeanson was a Canadian World Champion cyclist in 1999, but her story is one of extraordinary resilience amid abuse. At just 13 years old, she was subjected to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by her coach—and later coerced into taking EPO to treat anemia when she was only 16. This is a deeply personal account of how isolation, manipulation, and the pressure to succeed created a perfect storm that trapped a young athlete with no way out.
Key Takeaways
- Early warning signs of abuse in sport are often missed because we conflate athletic success with athlete wellbeing—a podium finish and a smile don't mean everything is fine at home
- Isolation is a critical tool abusers use: when athletes are separated from peers and support networks, they have no reference point for what's normal and no one to notice the warning signs
- Doping in this context wasn't a performance choice—it was coercion born from financial manipulation, threats of suicide, and the coach's financial dependence on the athlete's results
- The paranoia and psychological toll of doping rivals that of any criminal activity; athletes live in constant fear of testing and become estranged from the very community that defines them
- Parents and sports administrators often unknowingly enable abuse by looking the other way when an athlete is winning, and by lacking clear reporting mechanisms and resources for witnesses
- Recovery from abuse takes time—Geneviève spent 15 years in therapy and only came forward publicly in 2021, highlighting how shame and fear silence victims for decades
Expert Quotes
"Elite sport is unhealthy in my opinion...there is a line with tough love and your coach well and truly crossed that line from a physical abuse sense, an emotional abuse sense, and then later as a sexual abuse sense."
"I was trapped in a golden cage prison and I did not understand how to get out of it."
"I was less ashamed of people thinking of me as an athlete that failed a drug test than a person that lived through sexual abuse."