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21
Sexual Abuse Cases in Skating
In 1993, a skating instructor in Cleveland pleaded guilty to molesting his 15-year-old male student, beginning in 1990 and continuing for three years until the skater told his family. The abuse occurred both at their club, and at hotels where the two were staying during out-of-town competitions. After the student's allegations surfaced, a former skater in his 20's came forward to say that he too had been molested by this instructor in the early 1980s; this former student would have been used as a witness had the instructor not pleaded guilty. The original charges against the instructor, of various counts of rape and gross sexual imposition, were reduced to charges of sexual battery and imposition. He was sentenced to a year in jail. Said his victim, "[He has] taken a lot of my life away...he stole my innocence."Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
In 1995, a top-level German coach was convicted of sexually molesting a 17-year-old female student eleven times during the previous year. He was given a two-year suspended sentence and a three-year coaching ban. The victim was a pairs skater who claimed that the coach fondled and kissed her, and propositioned her during their stay at a foreign training camp. The coach was also, at the same trial, convicted of beating a female student, who was ten at the time of the incidents. Also fined by the court were the director of the coach's home rink and a German skating federation official, for having knowledge of the coach's behavior but not stopping him.
Other skaters who were students of the coach claimed not to have experienced or seen any abuse from him, and one top French coach defended him, believing that other coaches who lined up against him were motivated by jealousy, although he said "I never saw anything wrong with [this coach's] attitude...I don't know if [the accusations] were right or wrong. I have no idea."
Source: Talking Figure Skating, by Beverly Smith, McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1997.
In 1996, a Florida skating coach was sentenced to three years in jail, a year of house arrest and fifteen years probation after he pleaded guilty to molesting a female student whom he had coached since she was nine years old. The sexual activity began in 1992 when she was 14 and living with the coach and his family during the week, and continued when the coach and student were away at skating competitions. The abuse continued until she was 17. During that time, she was a successful and technically advanced competitive skater, winning numerous competitions. She suffered from anorexia before she disclosed the abuse, dropping as low as 84 pounds, and did not tell her parents until January 1996 about the sexual relationship.
Said the skater of her coach, "He was probably my biggest role model. He instructed me on what I ate, what to wear, who to hang out with. He told me exactly what I should tell my parents...I didn't tell him no [regarding the abuse]...I cared about him and everything. I was scared to tell him because I was young...I really looked up to him as a coach."
Sources: Cox News Service; Talking Figure Skating, by Beverly Smith, McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1997.
In 1993, a New Jersey skating coach was sentenced to four to twelve years in prison for rape and sexual abuse of female students. The coach had abused four students between 1986 and 1991. The students were 14 to 17 years old. The coach was accused by one student of raping her when she was under the influence of alcohol, which the coach had given to her after a trip to the movies. Said this student of the coach, "He tried to be a buddy...he made me think the world of him...He made me believe it was my fault." Another victim said the coach had been "like a father to her." Stunned parents of other skaters who had been coached by him said that they knew he could be a strict taskmaster, but that there was never any talk of sexual impropriety surrounding him. The coach skipped bail as his trial was to begin, was caught in another state, and pleaded guilty to charges of rape, sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child, although 55 other counts were dropped.
Source: Associated Press; Bergen (N.J.) Record; Talking Figure Skating, by Beverly Smith, McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1997.
A 13-year-old female skater was sexually abused by her female coach, who eventually pleaded no contest after charges were brought when the skater told a former coach about the abuse. The skater's parents sued the parent company of the arena which hired the coach, arguing that the coach's background had not been properly checked. The skater's grade point average dropped from 3.6 to 2.0 during the period of abuse, she became bulimic, but feared to reveal the abuse because she thought people would think she was lying or was a lesbian. The coach is now serving 10 years' probation. Said the skater later, "You can't see clearly [about the abuse]...the window's all cloudy, the defogger's not working...You want the Olympics so bad, you let someone control your life. Here's someone who was willing to work with me seven hours a day, seven days a week, who didn't have any other students. All she wanted was me." Said her mother, "We thought, 'We can have her in the Olympics. We didn't say, 'Two, three, four people make it every four years.'"
Source: Palm Beach Post, 6/21/98