Disclaimer: Contains descriptions of abuse and self-harm.
The US Center for SafeSport has temporarily banned US pairs figure skating coach Dalilah Sappenfield from all contact with a dozen figure skaters and from coaching other athletes without another adult present to supervise during that he continue to investigate allegations of misconduct.
Sappenfield, winner of the Professional Skaters Association / US Figure Skating Association Coach of the Year award, coached three-time national champions Alexa and Chris Knierim at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in South Korea, where they coached finished 15th in the pairs competition and won a team. bronze medal.
She was the coach and good friend of John Coughlin, the two-time National Pairs Champion who committed suicide at age 33 on January 18, 2019, a day after receiving a provisional suspension from SafeSport over three allegations of abuse sexual.
One of the skaters Sappenfield, 50, is banned from contacting, 2016 US Pairs Champion Tarah Kayne, told USA TODAY Sports about several allegations she brought to a SafeSport investigator, including one in which the coach’s constant verbal abuse, filled with sexual comments, led her to cut her left wrist with a razor blade in the summer of 2019 at her dormitory at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“She was constantly talking about sex, who I was dating, my sex life,” said Kayne, 28, who recently retired from competitive skating. “It was completely inappropriate, but that’s what Dalilah is doing. She uses the gossip of other skaters on the rink against you. She knew I had mental health issues, but instead of helping me, she chose to laugh at me. She even went to other skaters and told them about it, calling me names and asking the guys why someone would want to date me.
When asked to comment, Sappenfield texted USA TODAY Sports Thursday night: “Thanks for contacting me. At this time, I have no comment.”
Kayne said Sappenfield called her on the phone one night in July 2019 and threatened to lose her partnership with Danny O’Shea, with whom she won the 2016 national title, “not because of my skills, has she said, but because of the kind of person I was, ”Kayne said.
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It was the night Kayne said she had cut her wrist. As she started to bleed profusely, she said she went to O’Shea’s room in the dorm to ask for help. Kayne worried that a trip to the emergency room would anger Sappenfield more, so she and O’Shea used super glue to hold her skin together, Kayne said.
“In my head I thought I was going to die,” Kayne said, “but I was scared to go to the hospital because I didn’t want Dalilah to know about all of this.”
Over the next two weeks, Kayne said she tried to hide the scar by wearing long sleeves and wrapping her wrists with duct tape during her workouts with Sappenfield.
But the coach found out and instead of worrying about her well-being, Kayne said, Sappenfield took her aside while she was on the ice in a practice session and drove her aside. said, sharply, “Why don’t you go out and (expletive) the whole men’s gymnastics team?”
Like Kayne, the US men’s gymnastics team also trained and lived at the Olympic Training Center.
Kayne also said that in the last few months she was coached by Sappenfield, in the summer of 2020, Sappenfield banned her from speaking on the ice, excluding her and only speaking to O’Shea, even though she was they were all on the ice together, often a few inches apart.
“She told me not to speak, that I had to keep silent,” Kayne said. “It made me very tense and anxious, so I would hold my hands against my waist, cupped together, left hand on my right, and I would take my right hand and dig my fingernails into my left wrist and get bleeding all the time. Then I would go to the bathroom to try to calm myself down before going back to the ice.
Via text, O’Shea said, “I support Tarah in every way, just like I did when we were partners for nine years. Tarah is a strong woman and I am proud of her for coming forward and I hope her strength is a beacon for others. Together, we chose to leave a training environment that had become unhealthy for us. I support Tarah and I support SafeSport and their ongoing investigations.
O’Shea, 30, is competing this season with a new partner and new coaches in Southern California.
Kayne said she plans to continue skating with O’Shea during the 2022 Winter Olympic year.
“But everything changed because of Dalilah,” she said. “These horrific experiences forced me to quit the sport I love. Dalilah has said many times that she wanted to end my career, and she succeeded.
Instead, Kayne will be on tour with a skating show in Europe starting in November.
Kayne’s mother, Maria Kayne, told USA TODAY Sports that she discussed all of the incidents with her daughter around the time she said they happened. USA TODAY Sports also reviewed photos of Kayne’s wrist taken at the time of her injury.
SafeSport opened in March 2017 to investigate and resolve allegations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse in Olympic sports. On September 3, he issued temporary measures against Sappenfield, including a no-contact directive barring him from contacting the dozen skaters or their immediate families in any way, a ban on traveling with a minor athlete without others adults on the immediate travel team and a requirement that another adult be present to directly supervise when coaching athletes.
Other than the list of temporary measures on its website, SafeSport would not discuss the status of its Sappenfield investigation.
“The Center does not comment on issues aimed at protecting the integrity of the process and the parties involved,” spokesman Dan Hill said Wednesday.
