Figure skating struggles with sexual abuse allegations in year since shocking death

Christine Brennan | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Ashley Wagner: Why time was right to talk about sexual assault Olympic figure skater Ashley Wagner talks about the reasons she felt it was time for her to come forward about her sexual assault.

This weekend, U.S. Figure Skating observes a tragic anniversary: the death by suicide of two-time national pairs champion John Coughlin on Jan. 18, 2019 at the age of 33. In the year that has followed, figure skating has been a sport in turmoil as it struggles to cope with the fallout from his death.

The day before he took his life, Coughlin received an interim suspension by the U.S. Center for SafeSport. At the time, USA TODAY Sports reported that there were three reports of sexual abuse against Coughlin, two of them involving minors, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Other allegations of sexual abuse in figure skating have followed, continuing to rock the popular Olympic sport while some in the U.S. skating community have been reluctant to acknowledge that sexual abuse claims are now a pressing issue in their sport.

As three-time national champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist Ashley Wagner, one of Coughlin's alleged victims, told USA TODAY Sports last week, "This sport has a long, long, long ways to go before I can say that I feel that every single kid is safe.”

The allegations spread across the 2019 calendar, from the first action against Coughlin in mid-January to Wagner going public in August to the news in December that a French Olympic pairs skater allegedly sent nude photos to a 13-year-old American female skater, and that a USFS Hall of Fame skater and coach allegedly pressured the girl into not reporting the incident.

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There also was the continuing case of veteran U.S. coach Richard Callaghan, who led Tara Lipinski to the 1998 Olympic gold medal and Todd Eldredge to the 1996 world championship. After being banned for life in August by SafeSport for the alleged sexual abuse of a male student, beginning when the boy was 14, Callaghan, 73, had his suspension reduced to three years by an arbitrator in December.

“What has the sport learned in a year? I’m not sure,” Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Olympic gold medalist and CEO of the legal advocacy non-profit Champion Women, said this week. “They seem to be using the tragic suicide of an accused sexual abuser in order to not self-examine nor figure out how to protect athletes in a sports culture that is so dangerous for kids, both boys and girls.”

In a statement to USA TODAY Sports this week, U.S. Figure Skating (USFS) said that over the past year, it “has aggressively built upon its athlete safety education initiative with programs designed for athletes, parents and coaches; strengthened its athlete protection policies and procedures based on athlete-driven, real-world scenarios; expanded its SafeSport compliance requirements; and continued its athlete safety awareness campaign."

Mixed signals

But USFS leadership has also sent confusing signals. Mark Ladwig, USFS’s representative to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s prestigious Athletes’ Advisory Council (AAC), spoke in front of the council and in personal conversations in impassioned defense of Coughlin, according to three members of the AAC and one other person who attended the AAC's May meeting, all of whom asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Ladwig, a former pairs skater himself who competed at the 2010 Winter Olympics, also said in conversations that sometimes a male pairs skater’s hand slips when he lifts the female skater in practice or competition, resulting in his hand inadvertently touching her crotch.

Two Coughlin accusers came forward in 2019: Wagner, who is a singles skater, and Bridget Namiotka, a former pairs partner of Coughlin's who alleged in a Facebook post in May that Coughlin sexually abused her for two years when she was a minor and he was 18 or older. Neither woman mentioned an inadvertent slip of a hand as part of their alleged assaults. In pairs figure skating, a male skater’s hand slipping would be considered a mistake, not something constituting sexual assault.

Asked about his comments, Ladwig said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports:

"I apologize if any words I may have used in any way offended survivors or may have given the impression I trivialized sexual assault. Discussions at AAC meetings are to seek greater understanding for athlete issues and athlete safety. Sports that involve physical contact between training partners must NOT be considered consent to sexual contact.”

Hogshead-Makar said she was pleased Ladwig apologized but criticized his comments as “damaging and distracting” to the fight against sexual assault in figure skating.

“Obviously, being sexually abused is not the same as having a hand slip,” she said. “Some in attendance were confused that Mark’s comments were intended to defend John Coughlin from sexual assault allegations, and I’m glad Mark apologized for the confusion he created. It’s a familiar tactic used by those who want to deflect from what really needs to be done. At the time, Mark’s comments tended to derail the types of conversations U.S. Figure Skating sorely needs to prevent sexual abuse."

When asked about Ladwig’s status as both its AAC representative and chair of the USFS Athletes Advisory Committee, USFS said in a statement, "Mark Ladwig gave his account to you of what took place at the meeting. We have no further comment."

‘Long ways to go’

In August, Wagner told USA TODAY Sports that she was sexually assaulted by Coughlin in June 2008 when she had just turned 17 and he was 22. The alleged assault happened after a party at a USFS summer camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Wagner had gone to sleep and said Coughlin soon climbed into her bed, jolting her awake as he began kissing her neck.

“I was absolutely paralyzed in fear,” Wagner said, “and I remember feeling him shift his weight onto me, remember him putting his hands down my pants, and he was kissing my neck and I was terrified.”

Wagner said she pulled away from Coughlin, grabbed his hands and said, “Stop!”

“And he did,” she said, “and he just kind of looked at me quietly for a little bit and then got up and left the room.”

After the story was published, Wagner said she “had people saying thank you to me for showing the world that John was a good guy because he stopped when I asked him to. That makes my stomach turn. I had so many people come up to me who just clearly didn’t understand that it’s violating to be asleep and wake up with someone’s fingers all over you. It’s something that I thought would be so clear.”

Not long after Wagner’s allegation was published, a veteran male skater told USA TODAY Sports that he didn’t understand why her story was so newsworthy since Wagner, he said, “had not been raped.” He made the statement under the condition of anonymity so he could speak openly.

In December, USA TODAY Sports reported that SafeSport had opened an investigation into an allegation that French Olympic pairs skater Morgan Cipres sent two photos of his penis to the 13-year-old skater in 2017, according to the girl, her parents and emails obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

The girl and her parents said Cipres’ coaches, John Zimmerman, a 2002 Olympian and member of the USFS Hall of Fame, and Silvia Fontana, a 2002 and 2006 Olympian representing Italy, tried to keep the family from reporting the alleged incident to authorities by shaming and threatening the girl as Cipres, who then was 26, prepared for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

SKATING SCANDAL: Olympic figure skater, coaches being investigated for sexual abuse allegations

Zimmerman and Fontana have denied the allegations, while Cipres said he had “nothing to say about this allegation.”

Wagner said that once again she was shocked to hear the reaction after the story was published.

“I had people messaging me that the 13-year-old girl was instigating a lot, and I had to remind them that was basically shaming a child for something that she does not even have the brain development to be able to understand,” Wagner said. “A 13-year-old is still very much a child.”

Gordie Zimmermann, owner of the rink in Wesley Chapel, Florida where Cipres and the girl trained, also criticized the alleged victim in a December interview with USA TODAY Sports.

“I think there’s a situation with a young girl, a 13-year-old at that time, very disturbing social media situations out there of things that this girl that I’ve heard say about people,” Zimmermann said. “I think she’s dangerous as hell, I think the girl is dangerous. This girl was in our building. … The parents were told that she probably needs some supervision."

Wagner, who is retired from competition and is now a coach, show skater and TV commentator, said she will spend three days speaking with young skaters about her story and other issues surrounding sexual assault and the culture in the sport at USFS' national high performance development team camp in Charlotte, North Carolina immediately after next week’s U.S. national championships in Greensboro.

“I was genuinely shocked to see just how far behind people’s mentality was with everything regarding sexual assault and a victim’s role in it,” she said of this tumultuous year in figure skating. “It made me realize that this sport has a really long ways to go. At least we are starting down that road, but I just wish that we were miles and miles and miles further down that road. It’s now a conversation, but a conversation is not enough.”

Suicide Lifeline: If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) any time of day or night or chat online.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) or visit hotline.rainn.org/online and receive confidential support.