Yes, and with this being an election year, I am sure they’ll be scrambling to pass legislation revising Safe Sport to grant pedophiles leniency.
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Well… I received some info privately in relation to one of my questions. They have support from some of the Gymnastics community. I actually assumed it was from the Figure Skating community, and perhaps there is support from those folks as well, but I haven’t heard that.
However, the recent USA Today article I mentioned in my previous comment (admittedly along with quite a bit of snark on my part) shed light on some pretty serious issues going on in that community over the course of the last year, as they try to come to grips with a Safe Sport, and changing their culture. The headline was:
Figure skating struggles with sexual abuse allegations in year since shocking death
Anyone curious about that can Google, and read the entire article. I still can’t share links. :dead: But I did decide to share a few excerpts that stood out to me. The article was written by Christine Brennan, and according to the online version, came out on Jan. 17, 2020. I bolded the first excerpt, as it really resonated with me. And Nancy Hogshead-Makar is a STRONG credible voice, that many people respect. Her words strike right at the heart of what has deeply dismayed so many people (self included), as we have watched the backlash to Safe Sport build over the last several months.
“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.”
[I]“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.“[/I]
”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.”
”[I]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.”[/I]
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@Virginia Horse Mom are you saying that Athletes for Equity has the backing from some in the gymnastics world?
I understand the assumption of figure skating. When I was competing my Mom, despite not liking the low necklines etc about the outfits did concede to the less sexual looking get up. She made no bones about her opinion of how female skaters are dressed in a sexual manner no matter the age. I remember my friend getting a skating outfit that was a zipper front. I of course wanted one too. My Mom said heck no! My first outfit for competition was a basic black affair with a V neckline front and back with sequins at the neckline. The V plunge WAS low for a child of my age, but it was the most conservative we could find.
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I posted to soon saying that the other sport supporting Athletes for Equity was just gymnastics. It’s gymnastics AND figure skating. And… another update regarding the USA Today reporting. Apparently Christine Brennan wrote a follow up piece that was published two days ago. This time looking closely at how the governing body is dealing with the reaction to Safe Sport related controversy within figure skating. The headline is
Chief says figure skating does not have a culture of sexual abuse
Two excerpts that got my attention…
[I] 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.”
“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,” (Ashley) 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.”[/I]
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Yup. I’ve been told privately they have backing from gymnastics AND figure skating people.
I’m pretty stunned by the comment from the head of USFS (David Raith) in the second USA Today article. It makes USEF’s decision to grab the bull by the horns, revamp the SafeSport section of the website, and bring in Michael Henry for presentations and Q&A look like a VERY good move.
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I’m just going to put this here… not related to sport as this is a societal problem, but when I rail against people not educating themselves or feeling inconvenienced… well the person in the article below was a mentor and friend. He also babysat for my friends. Needless to say, when I say I get it’s hard to have a friend or mentor be accused and in this case convicted, I stand by my words when I say I walked away, no contact, as did the rest of us.
https://www.thefallonpost.org/courts…ard-alexander/
ETA: Please note the youngest age that they had proof of. This is why I’m so shocked at the push back. Not one of us, friends nor his command at the time, ever dreamed of making excuses.
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Recommend following judgethree on twitter to get a taste from the figure skating world: https://twitter.com/judgethree
One of the things she was talking about recently was how we don’t do a good job of protecting or training athletes when they are set up as a pair to have good boundaries, especially when they are quite disparate in age. And she mentioned an idea to have some age-specific training at some key points - 14, 18, 21 - to acknowledge the changing maturing and responsibility that comes with those different ages.
When National Champions in their mid-20s can’t tell their coach that they don’t want to wear a hat in K&C [ed: kiss and cry, the place where they wait for the scores], imagine the cultural challenges faced by a 13, 16, or 18 year old who wants to refuse a coach’s “request.” Imagine how vulnerable that makes teenagers to coercion and abuse.
The fact that skaters are grouped by skills rather than age makes a 14 year old and 24 year old feel like peers… but socially, they are not, and they need to be given the tools to negotiate that.
“It’s all meant to be proactive,” said attorney John Anderson, the senior director of U.S. Figure Skating’s SafeSport program. “You say, ‘U.S. Figure Skating has had a bad year.’ But if you ask me, if one kid suffers abuse, then it’s a bad year. To me, it’s never acceptable.”
Here’s hoping that viewpoint can become predominant in all sports.
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This article is more in-depth about the arbitrator’s reasoning in changing figure skating coach Richard Callaghan’s suspension from permanently ineligible to 3 years, and that the arbitrator did find that in fact he was guilty of the allegations. I don’t agree that the arbitrator correctly applied the law.
“This investigation found by a preponderance of the evidence that, over the course of two decades, [Callaghan] engaged in grooming behavior, non-contact behavior of a sexual nature, inappropriate physical contact, and sexual contact and intercourse, physical and emotional misconduct, and a pattern of exploitative and abusive conduct with young athletes he coached,” the investigators wrote.
Callaghan “used alcohol, emotional manipulation, and his position of power” to sexually abuse Maurizi from the time he was about 15 or 16 years old until he was about 22 years old, their report said, and he “engaged in a similar pattern of sexual misconduct and grooming” with several other male athletes he coached while they were in their late teens or early 20s.
Multiple female athletes, meanwhile, endured a different form of abuse. Callaghan “routinely berated” female students about their weight, investigators found, and “engaged in forceful physical contact” with female students when he was frustrated with their performance, including “pulling their hair, whacking them with a skate guard, and pushing and shaking them.”
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@poltroon - thanks for that heads up. She is all over this. I had seen her posts almost two months ago, but then she went quiet. I didn’t follow her as I tend to focus on other issues entirely when periodically dipping into Twitter…
But wow. She’s doing a great job speaking up about these issues and connecting the dots across sports and sharing news reports. It all shines a light on the broader picture. And why the backlash and attitudes are so upsetting to some of us.
And I think the idea of age specific training at key points as young people mature and change is REALLY good. Specific training related to teenagers and young adults who take on working student positions (or similar roles in other sports) would also be a great thing. The changes with age and a young person’s maturity and awareness, and changes with an athlete’s role and goals in any sport are all in transition during these time frames, and they are incredibly vulnerable as a result.
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@Denali6298 - wow. The ages. At least the sentence does something to restore ones faith in humanity. No wonder you are passionate about these issues.
@poltroon - I was unaware of some of these details of the Callahan case. That sounds incredibly similar to a pattern of behavior related to another infamous coach we have all talked about at length. Safe Sport had an incredibly challenging year last year.
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Indeed. Imagine being a parent who trusted that person to watch your kid. Kids never showed any sign of fear or being uncomfortable or your child was just a babe unable to talk yet. Imagine being that parent reading an article like that about a trusted friend after that friend moved away and got caught in another state.
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LOL, right? I haven’t seen any media coverage of their intensive campaign…and, um I think Congress is pretty busy doing something else right now…
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I am glad these people have a forum to keep embarrassing themselves. now hopefully people will stop employing them in sport, and maybe coth can stop using Packy as local old dude to chime in on insert topic x and he can just be a voice for the dopers, and kiddie diddlers, and bloody marilyn.
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Uh… wow. That was a miserable struggle to try and slog through reading.
And I like reading. And tend to be really long winded and rarely criticize others for it, because, well… yeah. I’ll own it. I am not good at being brief.
But what in the world are these people thinking? Seriously? What is their argument? I can’t even figure it out anymore. It’s bizarre.
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The end of Lefkowitz’ rebuttal is gold
“The president of Athletes for Equity says it is “not about not protecting children.” When an organization cannot even plainly state it is for protecting children, we should believe it.”
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“Societal norms established by the constitution…” was my favorite ‘I have no idea what I’m talking about’ line from them.
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They need to crawl back under their rock.
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Her rebuttal is awesome. And easy to read and understand.
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Yeah. I have to read the comments by DC and Packy a couple times to understand what point they were making if one at all. It was a painful read.
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