Wagner tells of sexual assault by another skater
Former Olympian Ashley Wagner said she was sexually assaulted by another figure skater in 2008 when she 17.
The three-time national champion wrote in USA Today on Thursday that John Coughlin climbed into her bed after a party at a skating camp and began kissing and groping her. Coughlin was 22 at the time and took his life in January at 33.
Wagner said she was “absolutely paralyzed in fear.”
Wagner won an Olympic team bronze medal in 2014 and now is retired from competitive skating. She said she feared speaking out earlier because she competes in a sport where judges determine success. She told the newspaper that two factors helped change her mind — the emergence of the #MeToo movement and Coughlin’s coaching suspension in January by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, an organization dedicated to protecting young athletes from abuse.
USA Today also reported that Bridget Namiotka, Coughlin’s former pairs partner from 2004-07, posted on Facebook in May that Coughlin “sexually abused” her for two years.
Wagner said soon after that night in 2008 she told two people close to her about what happened. USA Today spoke to one of those, who confirmed her account but was not identified because of the “sensitivity of the topic.” Wagner said she spoke with officials at U.S. Figure Skating in February.
Coughlin maintained his innocence throughout the investigations. He was found dead Jan. 18 at his father’s home in Kansas City, Mo.
Preseason victory caps Fangio’s day
Hours after visiting a hospital because of a kidney stone, Vic Fangio won a football game.
The new coach of the Denver Broncos saw a late interception set up rookie Juwann Winfree’s 15-yard touchdown catch, and his team edged the Atlanta Falcons 14-10 in the Hall of Fame game at Canton, Ohio, to open the NFL’s preseason.
Trey Johnson’s interception of Matt Schaub’s pass after the Atlanta backup quarterback was pressured set up Denver at the Atlanta 38 with 5:21 remaining. A 14-yard pass-interference call on fourth down against Rashard Causey kept the Broncos in it, but they were hurt by a holding penalty against rookie Ryan Crozier.
Unfazed, rookie Brett Rypien hurled a pass into the right corner of the end zone, where it was deflected and Winfree latched onto it with 1:26 remaining. In other news:
• Kicker Phil Dawson retired from the NFL at age 44 after 20 seasons. He spent his first 14 seasons with Cleveland and will sign a one-day contract to ceremonially retire with the franchise. Dawson played in 305 games — the seventh most in league history — and ranks 11th with 1,847 points. Dawson began his career with Cleveland’s expansion team in 1999. He joined San Francisco as a free agent in 2013 and played with Arizona the last two seasons.
• Five-time Pro Bowl center Ryan Kalil ended a short retirement to join the New York Jets. Kalil, 34, will need to pass a physical before signing his contract and making it official. Kalil announced at the end of last season that he was retiring from playing football after 12 NFL seasons — all with Carolina.
• Jacksonville rookie linebacker Quincy Williams, a third-round draft pick who showed enough over the last three months to lock down a starting spot, will miss four to six weeks because of a torn meniscus in his right knee.
Buhai’s 65 has first-round lead
Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa shot a 7-under-par 65 to take a onestroke lead after the first round of the Women’s British Open at Milton Keynes, England.
Buhai finished just ahead of Japan’s Hinako Shibuno and American Danielle Kang, who each had a bogey in rounds of
66.
In other news:
• Byeong Hun An and Sung jae Im each shot 8-under 62 to share the lead after one round at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C. Mackenzie Hughes, Rory Sabbatini, Patrick Rodgers and Johnson Wagner were a stroke back behind the South Korean leaders in the final PGA Tour event before the FedEx Cup playoffs. Former Wyndham winners Brandt Snedeker and Webb Simpson joined Jordan Spieth among the nine players at 64.
• Police arrested Ryder Cup player Thorbjorn Olesen on suspicion of sexually assaulting a female passenger while she was asleep on a flight to London, intoxication and failing to comply with the orders from the airline crew, British newspapers reported. The Sun and The Independent cited Metropolitan Police as saying a 29-year-old golfer from Denmark was arrested when the British Airways flight landed Monday at Heathrow. Olesen allegedly got into an argument with other passengers in first class. He also is alleged to have urinated in the aisle.
UT 10th, A&M 11th in coaches poll
Texas is ranked No. 10 and Texas A&M 11th in USA Today’s preseason college football rankings.
Clemson, with 59 firstplace votes, and Alabama, with the other six, are ranked first and second in the coaches poll followed by Georgia, Oklahoma and Ohio State.
LSU, which travels to Texas on Sept. 7, is ranked sixth.
Other Texas schools receiving votes were TCU, Baylor, North Texas and Houston.
Post Oak LL tops Mississippi 13-3
Texas East, an all-star team from the Post Oak Little League, scored three runs in the first inning en route to a 13-3 rout of Mississippi at the Little League Southwest Regional in Waco. The team from Houston added four runs in the second, and three more in each of the third and fourth innings of the game that went only four innings. Michael Peavy, Jake Baskin and Kristopher Carlson each had two RBIs for Texas East. Preston Sullivan got the pitching decision, allowing one hit and one run in two innings while striking out four and walking one. Post Oak will play Louisiana, which beat Arkansas 11-0, at 8 p.m. Saturday. … Anthony Giansanti’s threerun homer in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted the Skeeters to an 8-5 Atlantic League victory over Lancaster at Constellation Field in Sugar Land. Albert Cordero also had a two-run homer in the second inning for Sugar Land. … Stewart Friesen won on the dirt at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, for his first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Trucks victory and a spot in the playoffs. The 36-year-old Canadian broke through in his 63rd series start after finishing second six times. Friesen held off Sheldon Creed by 0.728 seconds in a two-lap shootout after the last of the 12 caution periods.