https://i.imgur.com/5L6Yrvp.jpeg
Breaking: U.S. Olympic pairs figure skating coach Dalilah Sappenfield was
banned for life Wednesday afternoon by the U.S. Center for SafeSport for
violations including emotional and physical misconduct.
重大新闻 周三下午，美国奥运花样滑冰双人滑教练达利拉-萨彭菲尔德（Dalilah
Sappenfield）被美国安全体育中心终身禁赛，禁赛原因包括情绪和身体上的不当行为。
https://reurl.cc/ezpa0b
Figure skater Tarah Kayne details abuse allegations against sanctioned
Olympic coach
Warning: Contains descriptions of abuse and self-harm.
U.S. Olympic pairs figure skating coach Dalilah Sappenfield, under
investigation for 2½ years, was banned for life Wednesday afternoon by the
U.S. Center for SafeSport for violations including physical and emotional
misconduct, retaliation, abuse of process and failure to report a potential
SafeSport violation.
“Culture change is happening,” SafeSport CEO Ju’Riese Colon said in a
statement to USA TODAY Sports after Sappenfield’s permanent ineligibility
was announced on the SafeSport Centralized Disciplinary Database.
“Actions that were once tolerated or ignored are no longer accepted, and
accountability is taking root,” she said. “That’s progress but creating
long-term culture change requires steadfast commitment by everyone in the
sport community to fostering safe environments for athletes to fulfill their
potential. Those who cling to toxic tactics will be left behind and on the
wrong side of history.”
Sappenfield did not immediately reply to a text message from USA TODAY Sports
after her punishment was announced. She has the right to appeal the lifetime
ban.
On Sept. 3, 2021, SafeSport issued temporary measures against Sappenfield,
including a directive prohibiting her from having any contact with a dozen
skaters involved in the investigation and a requirement that another adult
must be present to directly supervise her when she was coaching. The
allegations against Sappenfield included verbal abuse that led 2016 U.S.
national pairs champion Tarah Kayne to cut her wrist with a razor blade.
Kayne told USA TODAY Sports in October 2021 about several incidents she
reported to a SafeSport investigator, including one in which Kayne alleged
Sappenfield's constant verbal abuse, filled with sexual comments, led her to
cut her left wrist with a razor blade in the summer of 2019 in her dorm room
at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“She was constantly talking about sex, about who I was dating, about my sex
life,” said Kayne, who retired from skating and became a coach in Canada. “
It was completely inappropriate, but that’s what Dalilah does. She uses
gossip from other skaters in the rink against you. She knew I was struggling
with my mental health, but instead of helping me, she chose to make fun of
me. She even went to other skaters and told them about it, calling me names
and asking the guys why anyone would want to date me.”
In a separate incident, Mitch Moyer, then-U.S. Figure Skating’s senior
director of athlete high performance, directed an operation to remove a
16-year-old female Russian pairs skater from Sappenfield’s home in the fall
of 2020, according to three people with direct knowledge of Moyer’s action
who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.
It is a violation of the USFS SafeSport program handbook for a coach to be
housing a minor athlete. Two other skaters were living at Sappenfield’s
Colorado Springs house at the same time as the Russian skater, both of them
males over the age of 18.
Moyer reported Sappenfield’s living situation to SafeSport, according to two
of the people with knowledge of the situation.
Asked by USA TODAY Sports in November 2021 about the USFS action, Sappenfield
texted, “Thank you for reaching out to me. At this time I have no comment.”
Sappenfield is well known in skating circles as the coach and good friend of
John Coughlin, the two-time national pairs champion who died by suicide at 33
on Jan. 18, 2019, one day after he received an interim suspension from
SafeSport due to three allegations of sexual abuse.
Sappenfield vigorously defended Coughlin on social media after his death. USA
TODAY Sports has reported that there were three reports of sexual assault
against Coughlin, two of them involving minors.
Three-time U.S. women’s champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist
Ashley Wagner told USA TODAY Sports on August 1, 2019 that Coughlin sexually
assaulted her in June 2008 when she was 17. Wagner’s case is separate from
those three reports.
Sappenfield has been a fixture in U.S. pairs skating for nearly two decades.
The winner of the 2008 Professional Skaters Association/U.S. Figure Skating
coach of the year award, she coached three-time national champions Alexa and
Chris Knierim at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where they finished
15th in the pairs competition and won a team bronze medal.
Despite the temporary SafeSport measures, Sappenfield appeared at the 2024
U.S. figure skating championships in Columbus in January, standing by the
boards coaching a pairs team, still free to do her job at the top level of
the sport.
“I’m here for my skaters,” she told USA TODAY Sports as she walked away
from the ice and through the media interview area.
Asked specifically about the SafeSport measures that were still in place, she
said, “I think that’s very public.”
Sappenfield was allowed to be at the national championships and coach a pairs
team because SafeSport was still working on her case more than two years
after it began.
Further lengthening the process was an appeal filed by Sappenfield of her
temporary measures. On Jan. 5, 2023, an arbitration hearing took place and
the arbitrator upheld the temporary measures imposed on Sappenfield.
While she was coaching at the recent national championships, Sappenfield’s
temporary measures still existed, U.S. Figure Skating said.
“Dalilah Sappenfield is coaching at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships
under restrictions placed on her by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which has
jurisdiction of her case,” USFS said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. “
In cooperation with the Center, U.S. Figure Skating continues to monitor
Sappenfield.”