Safesport

USA Track & Field has been committed to creating a culture that clearly advocates, and provides for, a safe environment in which our athletes compete and train. We believe this is paramount to the success of all our programs.

For the safety of our athletes, particularly our youth athletes, as well as all our member participants, USATF adopted the USATF SafeSport Program back in 2014. SafeSport at USATF aims to prevent sexual misconduct and abuse, bullying, hazing, harassment, physical abuse, and emotional abuse, in the sports of LDR, racewalking, and track and field. Our goal is to create a clear culture of awareness to protect the participants in our sports at all levels.

USATF’s SafeSport Program includes elements of governance, advocacy, education and communication, and compliance and monitoring. Additionally, an important aspect of USATF's SafeSport Program is the requirement that certain individuals within USATF be USATF 3-Step SafeSport Compliant. USATF currently requires members of the following groups to be USATF 3-Step SafeSport Compliant: National Office Staff, Board of Directors, registered coaches, certified officials, authorized agents, National Team staff, National Committee Chairs, Association leadership, Youth Committee members, AAC Committee Members, AAC Event Leaders, all meet volunteers in an official capacity, Youth Camp staff, and vendors with access to athletes. 

How to become USATF 3-Step SafeSport Compliant as part of the USATF SafeSport Program:

1. Obtain a USATF membership.
2. Successfully complete the applicable annual USATF background screen with NCSI (which includes acknowledgement of the USATF SafeSport Handbook and an agreement to abide by the respective code of conduct).* 
3. Successfully complete the SafeSport Trained Core training available on the SafeSport website before having contact with athletes, and in any event, within forty-five (45) days of assuming such position within USATF. The course should take 90 minutes to complete and a PDF certificate will be available for download once you complete the training. More information on SafeSport training and step-by-step instructions can be found here. (USATF will require additional education at regular intervals in the future.)

*Please note: the USATF background screen does not apply to individuals younger than 18 years of age.

Once these steps have been completed, all USATF 3-Step SafeSport Compliant members will be listed on USATF's SafeSport Compliant List.