Ex-olympian alleges sexual assault by fellow skater

Saying she wants “kids to be able to stay kids” in figure skating, Olympian Ashley Wagner became the latest female athlete to talk about having been sexually assaulted, alleging that John Coughlin kissed and groped her when she was 17 in 2008.

Wagner, the most successful U.S. female skater of her era as a three-time national champion and winner of a team bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics, told USA Today that Coughlin, who was 22 at the time, got into her bed as she slept in a home where a party had taken place and assaulted her until she told him to stop.

Wagner, 28, is the highestprofile skater to make a public allegation of sexual assault in her sport and is the second top skater to speak publicly about Coughlin, a two-time U.S. pairs champion who died by suicide on Jan. 18, the day after the U.S. Center for Safesport gave him an interim suspension.

In May, Bridget Namiotka, Coughlin’s pairs teammate from 2004 to ‘07, accused him of sexually abusing her for two years when she was between the ages of 14 and 17 and he was 18-21. Wagner

USA Today reported in January that Safesport had received three allegations of sexual assault by Coughlin, but his death ended the investigation, and Safesport said it would not be reopened. According to USA Today, Wagner’s allegation is not one of those three cases.

Coughlin’s agent, Tara Modlin, told USA Today in January that the investigation was “unfounded.”

Wagner credits the #Metoo movement and the Coughlin suspension as the reasons she is coming forward now after “completely blocking out” the alleged assault, during which she said, “I was absolutely paralyzed in fear.”

As she explained in a first-person piece written for USA Today, she did not come forward immediately partly because “I was a young skater coming up through the ranks in a judged sport. I didn’t want to stir the pot. I didn’t want to add anything to my career that would make me seem undesirable or dramatic. I didn’t want to be known in figure skating as the athlete who would cause trouble. And I genuinely didn’t feel like anyone would listen to me anyway. Everyone really liked this guy. I even liked him.”

Wagner was at a house Coughlin party while attending a U.S. Figure Skating camp in Colorado Springs in June 2008 when, she alleges, Coughlin assaulted her.

Wagner and Coughlin “acted like nothing happened” the next morning and went on to compete on the same U.S. teams. They never talked about what happened, Wagner said, and he never offered an apology.

Wagner said that soon afterward, she told two people close to her about what happened. USA Today spoke to one of those two, 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.