Stalking allegations against Australian swimming coach Greg Hodge highlighted the dangers of sports mentors doubling as father figures, Olympian Dawn Fraser said.

Mr Hodge, 55, has been accused by former student Emma Fuller of stalking and also of behaving inappropriately with her when she was a 12-year-old boarder in his home in the mid-1990s.

He denies the claims but has been stood down from contact with swimmers by Australia Swimming Inc (ASI) until the matter is resolved.

Ms Fraser, who won a total of eight Olympic medals for swimming, said the federal government recently introduced guidelines for coaches in all sports but she said they needed to be tightened to better protect coaches and their charges.

"I think they do need to be tougher, not only for male coaches but also female coaches," she said.

"I think that coaches will have to stop being families away from families.

"I think they (male coaches) have to be very, very careful now (more) than they had to be in the past.

"People look at drugs in sport, now we have these allegations with sexual harassment in sport - it's just as bad as drugs in sport."

Ms Fraser said she also lived with her male coach in Adelaide for seven years while she was away from her Sydney home.

While there were never any harassment problems, she said times have changed since then.

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