Figure Skating Season Opens Amid $1.45 Million Sex Scandal Settlement

Photo Source: Tara Lipinski with her coach Richard Callaghan receives a hug after it was announced she won the gold medal at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville, Tenn. Feb. 15, 1997 file photo (AP Photo/Cliff Schiappa via The OC Register)

Throughout the world, sports fans are gearing up to cheer for their home-country favorites as the qualifying season for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing gets underway. Sadly though, that anticipation has been dampened yet again by the settlement of a $1.45 million sexual abuse claim against U.S. Figure Skating (USFS) for its failure to suspend a coach whose unlawful behavior they knew about but did little to stop.

As we watch today’s athletes jump and spin in amazingly difficult routines, viewers can’t help but wonder what some of yesterday’s athletes might have had to go through to reach their levels of perfection. Just as gymnastics will forever be tarnished by its horrifying sexual abuse scandal, for the past two years, figure skating has been dealing with several shocking scandals of its own.

This time, the million-dollar settlement has been awarded to former skater Adam Schmidt, now 36, who told USFS that he had been repeatedly abused by his coach, Richard Callaghan, while he was training for competition. Callaghan is best known for coaching Olympic Champion Tara Lipinski and World champion Todd Eldredge. He was also no stranger to sexual abuse claims.

Callaghan, now 74, was suspended from coaching in 2018 by the U.S. Center for SafeSport in 2019 for “Physical & Emotional Misconduct.” According to its website, SafeSport is a non-profit organization that is authorized to “safeguard athletes from bullying, harassment, hazing, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and sexual misconduct.” The Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017 makes the Center the “exclusive authority to respond to reports of allegations of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct within the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and their recognized National Governing Bodies (NGBs).”

USFS is required to enforce all of SafeSport’s disciplinary decisions, which means any suspended coach or athlete is prohibited from participating “in any capacity, in any activity or competition” authorized or organized by USFS or the US. Olympic Committee.”

ABC News reported that SafeSport’s initial suspension was lifted by an arbitrator and was reduced to a three-year suspension that would have made him eligible to resume coaching in 2022. The case was unsettled until August 21, 2019, where a lifetime ban was instituted just six days after Schmidt filed his lawsuit against Callaghan. Callaghan continues to deny charges.

Photo Source: Adam Schmidt in still from interview with The Debrief via ABC News Schmidt’s complaint, filed in Superior Court for San Diego County where one of the sexual abuses purportedly took place, alleges that Callaghan abused him over a three-year period from 1999 to 2001. Schmidt reported the abuse to USFS, but they did not dismiss the coach even though they knew that his complaint was not the first it had received.

USFS would not comment on the settlement, which was reached without any admission of any liability. In a written statement the governing body said, “U.S. Figure Skating fully supports all victims of sexual abuse and misconduct and encourages anyone who has been abused or suspects abuse or misconduct to immediately report it to local law enforcement, the U.S. Center for SafeSport or U.S. Figure Skating.”

The San Diego complaint, settled on January 15, was not Schmidt’s only suit. The skater previously reached a $1.75 million settlement with Onyx Ice Arena, a skating rink in Michigan where Callaghan coached a stable of athletes, including Schmidt and Lipinski.

“How did this happen? Why 20 years ago did everyone know and do nothing?” Schmidt told the Times of San Diego. “Because if they would have done something then … I never would have been abused.”

In July 2020, another of Callaghan’s former students, Craig Maurizi, sued the coach as well, alleging a pattern of abuse that began in 1979 when he was 13, and later became a full sexual relationship when he turned 18.

These two lawsuits are not the only blemishes on USFS’s record. In January 2019, another champion skater, John Coughlin, who won the U.S. Pairs Championship, committed suicide after three charges of sexual conduct were filed against him. Two of these reports came from minors. In addition, a then 13-year-old figure skater alleged sexual abuse by a French Olympic pairs skater who posted pictures of his genitals and sent them to the young girl on Instagram.

All these atrocities deeply harm amateur sports. As athletes around the globe continue to spend countless hours in rinks, on slopes, or in gyms, it is time to end the danger they face from the adults who are supposed to care for them.

As Schmidt’s attorney, John Manly, told USA Today, “Adam is incredibly brave to have proceeded with this lawsuit against a huge organization like U.S. Figure Skating…He is just the tip of the iceberg in this sport. These athletes should be treated like the treasures they are. They’re the best our country has to offer. Instead, they’re treated like a commodity in an organization that has a culture of sexual abuse that is stunning and despicable.”