i am thinking of how in 2018/19 many prominent north american skaters, coaches, and commentators closed ranks to cover up john coughlin’s actions after he died, and it only stopped when ashley wagner — who is much more decorated than that pos ever was — named herself publicly as a survivor of coughlin’s actions.
i am thinking of how in 2019/20 when morgan cipres was charged with soliciting a 13 yo at his rink, his then-coach was accused of helping cover that up. that coach received a six-month suspension and went straight back to coaching and is at the olympics right now. cipres’ ex-partner vanessa james pretended nothing wrong happened and she had a new partner for no reason whatsoever, and skate canada was perfectly happy to let her do this if james could get them an medal in beijing.
and now, six years later, the who’s who of ice dancing closed ranks around nikolaj sørensen even though skate canada suspended sørensen for six years. training mates still invite him to weddings. commentators still gloss over why fourner-baudry switched partners. meanwhile, the one person who used her public platform to call this out lost her job over it.
a suspension or probation does very little for athlete safety, when the message from the skating community is that they’ll protect abusers for as long as they can.
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