figure skating’s culture of abuse continues to transcend accountability.
The obscure sport was rocked by a series of scandals pre-COVID, but the global crisis is no excuse for figure skating’s leaders to continue to downplay its own crisis.
Figure skating is a strange sport, to put it mildly. Emerging from obscurity only during the Winter Olympics every four years and resigned as a typically Tonya Harding-related punchline the majority of the time, the sport largely operates in the shadows, playing out in front of a perpetually shrinking, scarily engaged niche audience.
The sport’s irrelevance to mainstream culture has allowed it to fly its freak flag high, for the most part, and (at least in the eyes of this long-time fanatic) figure skating remains a beautiful and fascinating phenomenon to witness. Current stars like Aliona Kostornaia, Gabriella Papadakis and Guillame Cizeron, Nathan Chen, Yuzuru Hanyu and Wenjing Sui and Cong Han are among the most talented skaters to have ever taken the ice, and (pre-COVID) are continuing to put out technically and artistically ambitious material that is forever reaching for new heights.
The sport’s relative obscurity has unfortunately also made it the perfect breeding ground for a pervasive culture of abuse, a trend that appears unlikely to improve or see its credibly-accused aggressors held accountable for their actions anytime soon. The global pandemic, which has brought the sport’s non-stop competition circuit to its knees along with most other things in the world, will likely make it even easier for abusers to escape responsibility.
Morgan Cipres (right) with his partner Vanessa James. (Photo: WikiMedia)
This week, the trend continued as the French figure skating federation announced that it would be pursuing no disciplinary actions against pairs figure skating star Morgan Cipres, who last December was accused of direct messaging photos of his penis to a 13-year-old female skater, who trained at the same Florida facility, in late 2017. Cipres was 26 at the time of the alleged abuse.
The federation claims it had not seen any objective evidence of the allegations, according to reports. Meanwhile, a police investigation into the incident was reopened just last month due to new information received by officials. A separate investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the government-funded organization tasked with investigating these cases, is also ongoing. Further, Cipres’ coaches, John Zimmerman and Silvia Fontana, are also under investigation due to claims that they threatened and pressured the 13-year-old skater and her family not to report the abuse because Cipres and his partner Vanessa James were preparing for the 2018 Olympics. Zimmerman, Fontana and Cipres have all denied wrongdoing.
The Cipres allegations are not an isolated incident in the sport or even amid the upper echelons of the French federation specifically:
Didier Gailhaguet, the French federation’s former president, resigned this February after it came to light that multiple figure skaters over a period of several decades reported to the federation that they were sexually abused by their coaches as minors. Gailhaguet’s successor, Nathalie Pechalat, was publicly endorsed by Cipres during her candidacy for the role.
Last January, American pair skater John Coughlin stood accused of three reports of sexual misconduct involving minors and was the subject of a SafeSport investigation. Coughlin, 33, killed himself shortly after news of the allegations went public. Later, Bridget Namiotka, a former pairs partner of Coughlin’s, and former U.S. champion Ashley Wagner also came forward to accuse Coughlin of sexually assaulting them. Coughlin’s family and friends have consistently denied the allegations and blamed his suicide on the SafeSport investigation.
Coach Richard Callaghan, whose students over the years include prominent U.S. stars from the ‘90s including Tara Lipinski, Todd Eldredge and Nicole Bobek, was initially banned for life from the sport based on the results of a SafeSport investigation, but that ban was later reduced to a three-year suspension. His former student, Craig Maurizi, just filed a lawsuit this week against Callaghan and three figure skating federations for allegedly ignoring his reports of being sexually abused by Callaghan while a minor. Callaghan has denied all wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the sport is also facing numerous reports of how coaches and officials are systemically abusing athletes. This week, Singaporean figure skater Jessica Shuran Yu revealed that she has been repeatedly physically assaulted by coaches in China, where she trained, starting when she was just 11 years old. Yu told The Guardian:
There is a toxicity that plagues aesthetic sports like gymnastics and figure skating, which both have environments in which adults can easily exploit young girls with big dreams. I genuinely believe there’s a correlation between the two sports. In both cases we are judged on our appearances. The costume, the makeup, the body image.
Yu’s words echo the concerns of two Swedish figure skaters who went public last year about the pressures they have faced around their weight and training and competing while injured. Recent stars including Gracie Gold, Yulia Lipnitskaya and Gabrielle Daleman have also gone public with eating disorders and mental health struggles. Former Finnish champion Kiira Korpi has also been outspoken about the impact that abusive training conditions in the sport have had on its young girls, in particular, saying “figure skating is like a church, everything is beautiful outside until you find out how everything is arranged inside.”
The growing scandal, however, has been largely met with a shrug by the sport’s leadership. SafeSport is under funded and over burdened. And the cases receive little to no media coverage, as under-staffed newsrooms have few resources to devote to what is essentially seen as a side-stage phenomenon with the sports media world.
The only reporter who is offering sustained, comprehensive coverage of the scandal is USA Today’s Christine Brennan. She herself is seen as a controversial figure in the exceedingly insular skating world, which tends to resist any serious outsider inquiry as fans and organizational leaders alike seem unfamiliar with standard journalistic operating procedures.
These few safeguards simply cannot sustainably hold an entire sport accountable for keeping its athletes safe. Despite the resignation of figures like Didier, it appears unlikely the institutions will do what it takes to upend the culture of abuse. Predators (like Nikolai Morozov, who has a public history of dating his young students) and rumored abusers continue to operate in the sport with little scrutiny.
What does this leave? A sport that continues to operate in shadows, with no adults in the room. But yes, it’s so beautiful from the outside.
Give: Listen, Portland, Oregon, is a city that’s close to my heart always. Many of my closest chosen family members live there and it’s making me incredibly angry to see a city I love serve as a dress rehearsal for this administration’s horrifyingly draconian secret police experiment. To support the mothers and others who are defending their home, please contribute to the Portland Black Youth Movement or the PDX Protest Bail Fund. Another group on the ground providing an important resource to organizers is Snack Bloc, so you can Venmo them some money here. If you know of other groups or efforts on the ground that need a boost, please let me know so I can update this post with additional options.
Listen: This was a big week for new music, and somewhat lost in the shuffle with Taylor Swift’s surprise foray into dad rock was Canadian artist Jessy Lanza’s new album All the Time. It’s a real stunner, especially if you’re missing club vibes while in quarantine like me.
Watch: If you haven’t checked it out already, Padma Lakshmi’s Taste the Nation series on Hulu is a real treasure. The vibe is Bourdain-ish, but Lakshmi updates the formula by connecting local cuisines to the cultures responsible for them, all while asking the question of how we define what American food, and who defines it. The fourth episode, on the history of the Gullah Geechee people in Georgia and South Carolina’s Lowcountry region, is incredibly moving and features a really compelling segment with culinary historian Michael W. Twitty.
Read: George M. Johnson’s memoir-manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue is a truly captivating read. Sticky, sweet and warm, it’s technically written for a YA audience, but I think it’s a worthy read for anyone really. It’s the book I wish I’d been secretly reading in high school instead of Rainbow High. This theGrio interview with Johnson on queer visibility in Black communities is fantastic: