Figure skating coach Thomas Incantalupo, 48, was sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he sexually abused one of the teenager girls he coached

A Minnesota figure skating coach has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for sexually abusing one of his teenage skaters.

Thomas Incantalupo, 48, of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, was arrested last year when he worked with the Eden Prairie Figure Skating Club.

He pleaded guilty to criminal sexual conduct charges in June, admitting to sexually abusing the girl for over two years, taking her to hotels for sex beginning in 2015 when she was just 14 years old.

Incantalupo made a teary apology in court to his wife and the skating community. But the judge scoffed at a reference in a court document in which Incantalupo allegedly characterized the abuse as an 'affair.'

'This is not cheating on your wife,' Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said, according to the Star-Tribune. 'This is a crime against a child.'

The survivor, now 18, delivered a victim impact statement to the court, saying her coach's abuse turned her dreams into a nightmare. 'He robbed years of my childhood and I'll never get those years back,' she said.

The girl, who has not been named, also said that she first started training with Incantalupo when she was nine years old and that she had looked up to him like a father figure.

She said that not only did Incantalupo sexually abuse her, but that he also emotionally abused her by isolating her from her friends and family.

Incantalupo was credited as being a master-rated freeskate coach, who first started coaching figure skating in 1990, going on to coach Team USA in 2008 and 2010

The girl said that before the sexual abuse started, Incantalupo had invaded her privacy by looking through her cell phone messages, harassing her about social media and yelling at her

He did so by stalking her and pretending to be a teenage boy on social media to spread malicious rumors about her to her classmates, she said.

The girl said that he would also cross boundaries and invade her privacy by looking through her cell phone messages, harassing her about her social media and also yelling at her until she cried.

'By the time he started sexually abusing me, he already had control of me,' she told the court.

She said that as the result of this abuse, she started cutting herself and contemplated ways to commit suicide, until she discovered that Incantalupo had been messaging her younger brother, who was also taking skating lessons from him.

'I couldn’t leave my little brother behind because he had never failed me,' she said.

The girl's attorney, Sarah Klein (right), believes that there are additional Incantalupo victims and hopes that news of his sentence will encourage them to come forward

Incantalupo was coaching figure skating while he worked out of the Eden Prairie Figure Skating Club, which skated at Eden Prairie Community Center (pictured)

The girl is said to have told a friend about the abuse, after which her parents learned of what was happening and they then went to police, according to WCCO.

One of Incantalupo's lawyers, Paul Engh, argued for a 12-year sentence. Engh said his client has lost his reputation because of media exposure and has 'been abandoned in the community.'

The attorney for the survivor's family, Sarah Klein, the first known victim of former USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar, called for reform in the U.S. Figure Skating organization, the Star Tribune reported. She said her client and family demonstrated tremendous courage and added that 'throughout the world of figure skating, children are still at risk.'

The girl said Incantalupo started coaching her when she was nine years old and her two years of abuse started when she was 14. (Pictured is the Eden Prairie Community Center)

Klein said U.S. Figure Skating has a 'long and shameful history' of putting money, medals and the reputations of coaches above children's safety. The attorney said her client plans to file a civil suit against the organization.

Klein said that she believes there are additional victims who suffered abuse at Incantalupo's hands and is hoping that news of his prison sentence will lead them to come forward.

'Child predators don’t just do this to one person,' Klein said according to Fox 9. 'I have reason to believe there are other victims of Incantalupo himself, and my message I want to send them is he is now safely behind bars. And it is safe to come forward and use your voice and share your story.'

U.S. Figure Skating issued a statement Friday afternoon saying the group 'stands with and supports the skater who bravely came forward after years of abuse' by Incantalupo.

'Incantalupo's actions were heinous and intolerable,' the statement said. 'By sharing the disturbing details of his grooming process and resulting sexual abuse, her voice and strength have put Incantalupo behind bars for his abhorrent crimes and provided other athletes and families the warning signs of grooming and abuse.'

A now-deleted Eden Prairie Figure Skating Club bio described Incantalupo as a master-rated freeskate coach and noted that he started coaching in 1990, going on to coach Team USA in 2008 and 2010.

In Incantalupo's Facebook 'About Me' section, he wrote that he is a competitive figure skating coach and that in coaching, he is 'attempting to give back to the sport what it has given to me.'

He listed his 'achievements through the years' as being a Professional Skaters Association Level V Ranking National and International Coach, PSA Master Rated Freeskate Coach, United States Olympic Committee and Dartfish Certified Video Analysis Technician and a US Figure Skating Official Regional Technical Specialist.