U.S. Olympic pairs coach Dalilah Sappenfield, who is below investigation by the U.S. Middle for SafeSport, had a then-16-calendar year-old Russian woman pairs figure skater removed from her household by U.S. Determine Skating’s senior director of athlete superior performance a calendar year in the past.
Mitch Moyer directed the procedure to get the skater out of Sappenfield’s dwelling in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in September 2020, according to 3 folks with immediate understanding of Moyer’s motion who questioned to continue to be nameless thanks to the sensitivity of the subject.
It is a violation of the USFS SafeSport plan handbook for a coach to be housing a small athlete: “A small athlete shall not reside in the exact same physical residence with an unrelated grownup participant underneath any situation.”
Two other skaters had been dwelling at Sappenfield’s household at the very same time as the Russian skater, both equally of them males above the age of 18.
United states of america These days Sports activities is not naming the Russian skater due to the fact she is a minor and did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
Two of the people today with knowledge of the problem stated Moyer documented the Russian teenager’s dwelling condition with Sappenfield to SafeSport.
Sappenfield, 50, has been temporarily barred by SafeSport from obtaining any contact with a dozen figure skaters and from coaching other athletes without the need of another adult present to supervise while the investigation into allegations of her misconduct proceeds.
The Russian skater, who had occur to the United States to prepare and are living with Sappenfield in late 2019, was moved to another household in Colorado Springs before at some point returning to Moscow, wherever she is now teaching.
Asked for remark, Sappenfield texted, “Thank you for achieving out to me. At this time I have no comment.”
By a USFS spokeswoman, Moyer declined remark, citing the ongoing investigation.
Sappenfield, winner of the 2008 Specialist Skaters Affiliation/U.S. Figure Skating coach of the year award, coached 3-time national champions Alexa and Chris Knierim at the 2018 Winter season Olympics in South Korea, where by they finished 15th in the pairs opposition and received a team bronze medal.
Sappenfield was the coach and good pal of John Coughlin, the two-time nationwide pairs champion who died by suicide at 33 on Jan. 18, 2019, just one day just after he gained an interim suspension from SafeSport because of to 3 allegations of sexual abuse.
A person of the skaters whom Sappenfield is prohibited from getting in contact with, 2016 U.S. pairs champion Tarah Kayne, explained to United states of america Today Athletics last thirty day period about many allegations she documented to a SafeSport investigator, which include just one in which the coach’s continuous verbal abuse, filled with sexual responses, led her to slash her left wrist with a razor blade in the summertime of 2019 in her dorm area at the U.S. Olympic Schooling Center in Colorado Springs.