US figure skating coach banned for life after series of disturbing allegations

U.S. Olympic pairs figure skating coach Dalilah Sappenfield received a lifetime ban by the U.S. Center for SafeSport on Wednesday for malpractice including physical and emotional misconduct, retaliation, abuse of process and failure to report a potential SafeSport violation.

SafeSport, a nonprofit started in 2017 that investigates abuse and misconduct reports, announced the discipline in its centralized disciplinary database on Wednesday, listing “permanent ineligibility” as the action taken in the case.

Sappenfield, who was temporarily barred during an investigation into the allegations of misconduct by 2016 U.S. pairs champion Tarah Kayne in 2021, has the right to appeal the lifetime ban punishment.

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“Culture change is happening,” SafeSport CEO Ju’Riese Colon said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports after the two-and-a-half-year investigation concluded. “Actions that were once tolerated or ignored are no longer accepted, and accountability is taking root.

“That’s progress but creating long-term culture change requires steadfast commitment by everyone in the sport community to fostering safe environments for athletes to fulfill their potential. Those who cling to toxic tactics will be left behind and on the wrong side of history.”

In September 2021, SafeSport opened a probe into allegations against Sappenfield of verbal abuse that led to Kayne cutting 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.

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Sappenfield — winner of the 2008 Professional Skaters Association/U.S. Figure Skating Coach of the Year award — was temporarily barred from having any contact with a dozen figure skaters, including Kayne, and from coaching other athletes without another adult present to supervise during the investigation.

She had no comment at the time, according to USA Today.

“She was constantly talking about sex, about who I was dating, about my sex life,” Kayne, who is now 31 and retired from competitive skating, told the outlet in 2021. “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.”

SafeSport investigated a separate incident that involved a 16-year-old female Russian pairs skater staying at Sappenfield’s Colorado Springs home in the fall of 2020, according to USA Today — which reported two other skaters, males over the age of 18, were living at Sappenfield’s home at the time.

Per SafeSport rules, a coach is prohibited from housing a minor athlete.

Mitch Moyer, then-U.S. Figure Skating’s senior director of athlete high performance, reported Sappenfield’s living situation to SafeSport, which cited an anonymous source.

Sappenfield coached three-time national champions Alexa and Chris Knierim at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where they won a team bronze medal after a 15th-place finish in the pairs competition.