GREENSBORO, N.C. — Last March, the U.S. Center for SafeSport delivered a chilling assessment of sexual abuse in the sport of figure skating, saying it discovered “a culture in figure skating that allowed grooming and abuse to go unchecked for too long.”

Despite a series of high-profile allegations of sexual abuse in the intervening months, U.S. Figure Skating executive director David Raith told USA TODAY Sports Thursday afternoon, “We don’t agree with their statement.”

But several well-known members of the U.S. skating community said that SafeSport’s appraisal is correct, including three-time national champion Ashley Wagner, who accused the late John Coughlin of sexually assaulting her in June 2008 when she was 17 and he was 22 in a USA TODAY Sports story in August. 

“As an athlete who spoke with the executive director face-to-face about my own story, I am surprised to hear that he does not agree with SafeSport’s assessment that there is a problem,” Wagner said in a text message Friday. “It would also be surprising if he believes he is better equipped to make that assessment than an independent body dedicated to preventing this exact situation. Denying or ignoring the elephant in the room is not enough to save the sport I love. Only profound change will be able to improve the trajectory of where we are headed, and profound change always has to start with an honest look in the mirror.”

Former Olympian Ashley Wagner (not pictured) will be talking this week with young skaters about sexual assault in her sport at U.S. Figure Skating's national high performance development team camp in Charlotte, N.C., which is being held in conjunction with the 2020 national championships in Greensboro. (Photo: Bob Donnan, USA TODAY Sports)

Wagner, 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist and 2016 world silver medalist, will spend three days this week speaking with young skaters about her story and other issues surrounding sexual assault and the culture in her sport at U.S. Figure Skating's national high performance development team camp in Charlotte, N.C., which is being held in conjunction with the 2020 national championships in Greensboro.

“I am frustrated and disappointed that U.S. Figure Skating can’t or won’t acknowledge the systemic problems that led to this conclusion from SafeSport,” she said. “There have been so many cases of sexual abuse reported in the past year alone, and to view them as isolated or unconnected incidents is a disservice to the sport and an insult to the brave men and women who have come forward. 

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

“Skating has a history of fostering and creating power imbalances that thrive in dark corners, and to believe that all of these cases are unrelated to the culture of figure skating is either grossly naïve or absolutely negligent.”

While rejecting SafeSport’s assessment of skating’s culture, Raith would not offer his own characterization.

“We look at it as a societal issue,” he said. “It’s not just us. It’s every sport, it’s other facets of life. We’re doing everything we can to help educate, to help proactively ensure that our small membership in the big world is aware of things they should be looking out for and bad people and things to do right and things to keep everybody safe because it is a topic now that is on everybody’s mind and we accept that. You can never do enough. But we’re trying to do everything we can. For me, the No. 1 thing is that you support survivors and you believe in survivors.”

Raith also highlighted what he said U.S. Figure Skating (USFS) has done to try to prevent sexual abuse, including “education, education, education.”

“What we’ve done and what we have done before is we’ve talked to our athletes, we’ve talked to Ashley, we’ve talked to all of our constituents, and have looked at what we were doing and then what we could do even more of,” Raith said.

Wagner is not alone in her blunt assessment of her national governing body. 

”If there wasn't a problem, there would not be any of these stories,” Adam Rippon, 2016 national champion and 2018 Olympic team bronze medalist, said in an interview during nationals, which he attended as a coach for 2020 national silver medalist Mariah Bell.

“I think there's a bit of denial and there's a bit of shame, like how could this happen in our home when we think that we know what's going on?” Rippon said. “I think there's a bit of sadness because we don't want that, we don't want that here. In the last year, we've seen a lot of stories and people haven't really known how to deal with these situations. We should know how to deal with them.”

Tai Babilonia, five-time national champion, 1979 world champion and two-time Olympian in 1976 and 1980 with pairs partner Randy Gardner, said in a phone interview that USFS’s denial of a cultural problem was concerning.

“What are they afraid of? Just make it better. Just own that there’s a problem and try to make it better. Here we go again, roll our eyes and it’s swept under the rug,” she said.

“The bottom line is, own this, USFS. Own that there is a problem in our sport and tell us how you plan to fix it. I wish I could do more, but thank God for Ashley. How bad does it have to be before there’s a change? USFS should take a page out of the gymnastics world before it gets that bad.” 

Bill Fauver, a longtime coach and two-time Olympian in pairs skating in 1976 and 1984, said SafeSport’s assessment of the USFS culture was “stating the obvious.”

“What U.S. Figure Skating is doing is only what is mandated,” he said. “They are not taking any unique or bold steps to address the situation. It is simply not going to go away by wishful thinking.”

Coughlin, 33, died by suicide Jan. 18, 2019, one day after he received an interim suspension from SafeSport. USA TODAY Sports has reported that there were three reports of sexual abuse against Coughlin, two of them involving minors. Coughlin’s death effectively ended the investigation into those reports, SafeSport announced in February. Wagner’s case is separate from those three reports.

In December, USA TODAY Sports reported that French Olympic pairs skater Morgan Cipres allegedly sent two photos of his penis to a 13-year-old American female skater, and that USFS Hall of Fame skater and coach John Zimmerman allegedly pressured the girl into not reporting the incident.

There also has been the continuing case of veteran U.S. coach Richard Callaghan, who led Tara Lipinski to the 1998 Olympic gold medal. 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. 

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