SINGAPORE - What an assistant athletics coach allegedly did to her was traumatic enough, but national hurdler Kerstin Ong was stunned by her teammates' reaction when she confided in them.
Instead of supporting her over the alleged outrage of her modesty by the coach, a 40-year-old man, they told her not to pursue the case.
And when she told a general manager (GM) at Singapore Athletics (SA) about the alleged incidents, her teammates, including one whom she considered her best friend, ostracised her.
"One of them scolded me for blurting it out to the authorities and said I should have kept it within the group," she added.
Reflecting on how her alleged ordeal, which occurred more than two years ago, had affected her, Ms Ong, now 21, told The New Paper last week that she felt "betrayed" by her best friend and teammates.
"The most painful part of the whole experience was having my team and the person I considered my best friend turn against me.
"I did not know what to do or who to trust."
Ms Ong said the coach allegedly began by harassing her with sexual jokes before progressing to comments about her body and "being very touchy at training".
She said she felt very uncomfortable and violated but was too afraid and embarrassed to say anything.
She added that she was too afraid to speak to anyone but her closest friends about it.
To her shock, they told her not to make a big deal of it and wanted her to settle the issue internally by confronting the coach.
But she was so scared and uncomfortable by then that she did not even want to attend training, much less summon the courage to confront him, she said.
Ms Ong said her telling the GM about the alleged incidents was accidental as she had unwittingly mentioned the coach's "touchiness" while answering questions about the training sessions.
"But she really picked up on it and started probing me to talk about it. The support she gave me was really important to me."
She said she got an earful from her teammates when they found out she had spoken to the manager.
Read more at : https://www.straitstimes.com/sport/...ource=Facebook&xtor=CS1-10#Echobox=1537752080
