Olympic skating coach under investigation still able to coach at top level

Warning: Contains descriptions of abuse and self-harm.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For more than two years, the U.S. Center for SafeSport has been investigating allegations of misconduct against U.S. Olympic pairs figure skating coach Dalilah Sappenfield, including verbal abuse that led the 2016 national pairs champion to cut her wrist with a razor blade. 

On Sept. 3, 2021, SafeSport issued temporary measures against Sappenfield, including a directive prohibiting her from having any contact with a dozen skaters involved in the case, and a requirement that another adult must be present to directly supervise her when she is coaching. 

But last week at the U.S. figure skating championships, Sappenfield stood by the boards coaching a pairs team, still free to do her job at the top level of the sport. 

“I’m here for my skaters,” she told USA TODAY Sports as she walked away from the ice and through the media interview area. Asked specifically about the SafeSport measures that are still in place, she said, “I think that’s very public.” 

Sappenfield was allowed to be at the national championships and coach a pairs team because SafeSport is still working on her case and has yet to make a decision on what, if any, punishment she will receive. 

“Our investigations are measured, thorough and fair,” SafeSport CEO Ju’Riese Colon said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. “All parties, as well as Center staff, want investigations to conclude swiftly, but never at the expense of getting it right. We owe that to the parties and never lose sight of our mandate to bring accountability to those who harm sport participants.”

Colon continued: “We do, however, recognize and take responsibility for cases lingering far too long. Please know that we continue to evolve and are always working to update, improve and expedite the process without losing quality, thoroughness and fairness. We will soon roll out updates that we expect will further improve processes without compromising the integrity of our investigations.”

Further lengthening the process was an appeal filed by Sappenfield of her temporary measures. On Jan. 5, 2023, an arbitration hearing took place, and the arbitrator upheld the temporary measures imposed on Sappenfield. 

Meanwhile, while she was coaching at the national championships, Sappenfield’s temporary measures still existed, U.S. Figure Skating said. For example, another adult accompanied her in the arena and beside the ice. 

“Dalilah Sappenfield is coaching at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships under restrictions placed on her by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which has jurisdiction of her case,” USFS said during the championships in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. “In cooperation with the Center, U.S. Figure Skating continues to monitor Sappenfield.”

In October 2021, when asked for comment on the allegations, Sappenfield texted, “Thank you for reaching out to me. At this time I have no comment.”

Sappenfield is well known in skating circles as the coach and good friend of John Coughlin, the two-time national pairs champion who died by suicide at 33 on Jan. 18, 2019, one day after he received an interim suspension from SafeSport due to an allegation of sexual abuse. 

Sappenfield defended Coughlin on social media after his death. USA TODAY Sports has reported that there were three reports of sexual assault against Coughlin, two of them involving minors. 

Three-time U.S. women’s champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist Ashley Wagner told USA TODAY Sports on Aug. 1, 2019, that Coughlin sexually assaulted her in June 2008 when she was 17. Wagner’s case is separate from those three reports. 

One of the skaters whom Sappenfield is prohibited from contacting, 2016 U.S. pairs champion Tarah Kayne, told USA TODAY Sports in October 2021 about several incidents she reported to a SafeSport investigator, including one in which Kayne alleged Sappenfield’s constant verbal abuse, filled with sexual comments, led her to cut her left wrist with a razor blade in the summer of 2019 in her dorm room at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“She was constantly talking about sex, about who I was dating, about my sex life,” said Kayne, who now is coaching skating in Canada. “It was completely inappropriate, but that’s what Dalilah does. She uses gossip from other skaters in the rink against you. She knew I was struggling with my mental health, but instead of helping me, she chose to make fun of me. She even went to other skaters and told them about it, calling me names and asking the guys why anyone would want to date me.”

In a separate incident, Mitch Moyer, then-U.S. Figure Skating’s senior director of athlete high performance, directed an operation to remove a 16-year-old female Russian pairs skater from Sappenfield’s home in the fall of 2020, according to three people with direct knowledge of Moyer’s action who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter. 

It is a violation of the USFS SafeSport program handbook for a coach to be housing a minor athlete. Two other skaters were living at Sappenfield’s Colorado Springs house at the same time as the Russian skater, both of them males over the age of 18. 

Moyer reported Sappenfield’s living situation to SafeSport, according to two of the people with knowledge of the situation. 

Asked by USA TODAY Sports in November 2021 about the USFS action, Sappenfield texted, “Thank you for reaching out to me. At this time I have no comment.”

Sappenfield has been a fixture in U.S. pairs skating for two decades. The winner of the 2008 Professional Skaters Association/U.S. Figure Skating coach of the year award, she coached three-time national champions Alexa and Chris Knierim at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where they finished 15th in the pairs competition and won a team bronze medal.