UK Sport notified of 19 allegations of emotional abuse or neglect of athletes since 2017

There have been 19 allegations of emotional abuse or neglect of British world-class programme athletes by coaches since 2017, including seven so far this year.

UK Sport - the funding agency for Olympic and Paralympic sports - has also received three notifications from governing bodies in the past three years of top coaches or support staff engaging in inappropriate sexual activity with an athlete, including two in 2019.

Meanwhile, two allegations were made of athletes on the world-class programme bullying their coaches, one in 2018 and another this year.

Responding to the figures, UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday said she is "always concerned" to hear of athletes experiencing "unacceptable behaviour".

The culture within high-performance sport is under intense scrutiny following a spate of allegations regarding abuse in gymnastics, which has prompted an independent inquiry and the launch of a specialist helpline by the British Athletes' Commission (BAC) and NSPCC.

Olympic medallist Nile Wilson told BBC Sport British gymnasts are treated like "pieces of meat", while Olympians Becky and Ellie Downie said abusive behaviour in the sport had become "completely normalised".

In recent years, a number of other publicly funded sports have been embroiled in athlete welfare and duty-of-care controversies, including cycling, Para-swimming, archery and canoeing.

A Freedom of Information request by BBC Sport found five notifications of emotional abuse or neglect by a sports coach were made to UK Sport in 2017, two in 2018, five in 2019 and seven in the first seven months of this year.

There have been no allegations of physical abuse or sexual activity with under-18s.

The world-class programme covers all funded Olympic and Paralympic sports, and supports about 1,100 of the country's leading athletes and their coaches.

No detail has been given on the sports, athletes or coaches to which the allegations relate, nor the outcome of any disciplinary processes that followed, because of data protection and confidentiality rules.

But as part of the funding agreement with sports, governing bodies have to inform UK Sport when allegations are made and provide updates of any investigations.

Munday told BBC Sport: "We are always concerned to hear about notifications of any of the 1,100 athletes in the world-class programmes experiencing unacceptable behaviour.

"National governing bodies are required to notify us of any case involving the conduct of world-class programme staff or athletes as soon as they become aware of a complaint.

"While UK Sport does not have the authority to investigate such cases, as an investment agency we need to ensure public funding supports only athletes and staff who uphold high standards of conduct.

"We take athlete welfare extremely seriously - and we believe that, whenever unacceptable behaviour does occur, it must be reported. We will monitor the progress of each NGB's investigation, and any disciplinary process arising, to its conclusion."

In 2018, a 'Culture Health Check' report by UK Sport found that 30% of Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes had either experienced or witnessed 'unacceptable behaviour' in their elite programmes.

Almost a third of athletes (31%) disagreed when asked in the survey if they had the "opportunity to give feedback without fear of negative consequences".