Snowboarders sue ex-coach An Olympic bronze medalist and different former U.S. Ski & Snowboard crew members sued their former coach, Peter Foley, together with the nationwide federation, its former CEO and the U.S.
Olympic & Paralympic Committee on Thursday for intercourse trafficking, harassment, and enabling and masking up repeated acts of sexual assault and misconduct.
Three-time Olympian Rosey Fletcher, 2010 Olympian Callan Chythlook-Sifsof and former nationwide crew member Erin O’Malley alleged in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Courtroom in Los Angeles that Foley, the nationwide federation, its longtime CEO Gale “Tiger” Shaw and the USOPC “conspired and acted in live performance with each other to commit illegal acts.”
Their lawsuit alleged that Foley exploited his place of belief to “coerce sexual acts by power, manipulation, emotional abuse, intimidation, and retaliation.”
“We’re conscious of the lawsuits that had been filed,” a USSS spokesperson stated. “U.S. Ski & Snowboard has not but been served with the grievance nor has had a chance to completely evaluate it.”
A USOPC spokesperson additionally stated the committee had not obtained the grievance.
Shaw didn’t instantly reply to ESPN’s request for remark. Nor did Foley’s lawyer, Howard Jacobs, who beforehand informed ESPN in March 2022, “Any allegations of sexual misconduct being made in opposition to him are false. Mr. Foley has not engaged in any conduct that violates the SafeSport Code.”
By submitting the lawsuit, Fletcher, a 2006 Olympic bronze medalist in parallel big slalom, revealed her identification because the Olympic medalist first described by ESPN in its March 2022 investigation of Foley and USSS.
She stated within the lawsuit that Foley sexually assaulted her at a U.S. crew camp when she was 19 and once more at a postrace occasion on the Olympics, allegations she initially reported to ESPN beneath the situation of anonymity.
O’Malley alleged she was “sexually assaulted and harassed at USSS- and USOPC-sponsored competitions by Foley, who exploited their unequal energy dynamic.” O’Malley stated within the lawsuit that Foley started mentally and verbally abusing her when she was 15 and sexually assaulted her in an elevator, in Fletcher’s presence, after a contest.
“Foley started groping Erin and forcibly making an attempt to kiss her — all with out her consent,” the lawsuit stated, including, “For practically twenty years, coaches and executives at each organizations enabled Foley’s conduct, refused to behave, and helped cowl up Foley’s conduct, permitting him to proceed his sample of abuse.”
Federation The plaintiffs are looking for an unspecified quantity in damages.
Within the lawsuit, Chythlook-Sifsof revealed for the primary time that she was “sexually assaulted and raped by a male coach practically 3 times her age from an opposing crew” when she was 16 throughout her first junior world championship occasion in Zermatt, Switzerland, in 2005.
“Though it was not a USSS coach that sexually assaulted Callan, USSS set the stage for the assault to happen and failed to vary the poisonous atmosphere,” the lawsuit stated.
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Chythlook-Sifsof first raised allegations of sexual impropriety in opposition to Foley in February 2022 in a collection of Instagram posts.
USSS CEO Sophie Goldschmidt beforehand informed ESPN that the federation had instantly applied an “athlete security plan” that prohibited Foley from having “one-on-one interplay with feminine athletes” and from going into the athlete village after Chythlook-Sifsof made her social media posts. USSS positioned Foley on a depart of absence in February 2022 earlier than firing him a month later.
The brand new lawsuits, nevertheless, allege that “regardless of the suspension, video footage confirmed Foley in a restricted space on the end line of the Ladies’s Snowboard Cross occasion” on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
ESPN has reviewed the video, which reveals Foley hugging gold medalist Lindsey Jacobellis simply after she crossed the end line.
USSS stated on the time that it had adopted protocol and reported the allegations to the USOPC, which had jurisdiction over Foley in the course of the Video games, and the U.S. Middle for SafeSport, which handles stories of sexual abuse throughout the Olympic motion.
Lindsey Nikola, a former USSS worker, filed a separate lawsuit Thursday in opposition to Foley,
Shaw and the federation alleging that Foley pressured her to take nude images and sexually assaulted her in lodge rooms at two separate World Cup ski races whereas she was employed as a member of the united states communications crew.
“At USSS-sponsored competitions, Lindsey was coerced, sexually harassed, and sexually assaulted by Foley, who exploited their unequal energy dynamic,” the lawsuit stated.
ESPN additionally reported on the time how Fletcher and O’Malley alleged USSS workers and a former board member interfered in SafeSport’s investigation of their allegations in opposition to Foley, prompting a second SafeSport investigation targeted on the federation’s alleged interference.
Each investigations are ongoing, with Foley briefly suspended from taking part in any occasion, exercise or competitors licensed or organized by the USOPC and USSS. It additionally prevents him from utilizing services beneath their jurisdiction.
“Had the united states taken the protection of their younger athletes and workers critically, Foley’s conduct might have been prevented,” the brand new lawsuits said. “As an alternative, for practically twenty years, coaches and executives at USSS enabled Foley’s conduct, refused to behave, and helped cowl up Foley’s conduct, permitting him to proceed his sample of abuse.”
Others named within the lawsuit embody Goldschmidt, former USOPC chief of sports activities efficiency Alan Ashley, former Olympic snowboarder and USSS board member Lisa Kosglow, present USSS normal counsel Alison Pitt and former USSS workers Abbi Nyberg and Jeffrey Archibald.
