I think, again, it boils down to the athletes' having a group that's advocating solely for the athletes because, unfortunately, people don't have the moral compass. It is about business and money, and if they can exploit the athletes' information to gain traction in their business on the side that does have the money and power, unfortunately people make that choice to engage in that conflict of interest. Again, I think there needs to be a group that's advocating for the athletes.
I think it's also important to mention that when you come forward, you don't have any experience or background. You are in this whirlwind, and people are reaching out to you. If you don't know the lay of the land, it's easy to.... If someone approaches you, you think that they're there to help you. You don't even know about this whole underbelly that's protecting the institution of sport, and it's super easy to just get sucked in.
That's, again, where I think it's so important that we have that balance in the system so that when you come forward, the way I came forward.... The only reason why even mentally I got through the first month was that, just by chance, my friend was friends with Gen Simard, who was a whistle-blower in the Alpine Canada case. She was on the phone with me for a full month. I've never met her in person, but she supported me.
There needs to be a formal body that does that. I think that if there is a group protecting the athletes, then they're not going to be susceptible to organizations that are coming at them in their time of vulnerability and that are going to use their information to exploit and gain contracts with the institutions. Unfortunately, at this point, it's all so unregulated that that's happening all the time.