Five women who used to be part of the national artistic swimming team have come forward to denounce abuse they say they suffered at the hands of coaching staff, and to demand damages from the sport federation. The former artistic swimming athletes (the sport was formerly called synchronized swimming) filed a request for a class action lawsuit against Canada Artistic Swimming (CAS), asking to sue for collective damages over psychological abuse and harassment suffered while training. Erin Willson said she was targeted and harassed about her weight by her coach while training with the national team. "It's really a taboo in artistic swimming," she said, adding that during her training she was both anorexic and bulimic. "Never in my 13 years of artistic swimming had I seen so many injuries and concussion scares within one team.

Source: CBC News March 09, 2021 20:35 UTC