Figure Skating Coach Sentenced to 24 Years for Sexual Abuse

[BittyBug]

A former figure skating coach from Minnesota was sentenced to 24 years in prison on Friday after pleading guilty in June to sexually assaulting a female teenage skater. The coach, Thomas Incantalupo, 48, of St. Louis Park, Minn., had been accused of repeatedly assaulting his former skater, who is now 18 but was between the ages of 14 and 16 when she was assaulted.

In court on Friday, the teenage skater said that a “million pounds of weight” were lifted off her shoulders by going public but that she still experienced nightmares from being abused, found it difficult to trust anyone and did not feel safe to move away from home to attend college.

Figure Skating Coach Sentenced to 24 Years for Sexual Abuse (Published 2019)

The sport is rattled by yet another scandal, raising more questions about why officials are not keeping athletes safe in Olympic sports.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Sylvia]

Link to the original January 2018 news thread: https://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/th...th-criminal-sexual-conduct-with-minor.102939/

ETA:

Local Minnesota articles:

https://kstp.com/news/former-skatin...tencing-criminal-sexual-conduct-case/5507893/

Minneapolis-area figure skating coach gets decades in prison for girl's sex abuse

The teen said her former Team USA coach had been a father figure to her.

www.startribune.com

 

[BittyBug]

Mods feel free to merge. Here is the victim's statement to the court:

Minnesota figure skating sexual abuse survivor: 'He robbed years of my childhood'

Minnesota figure skating coach Thomas Incantalupo was sentenced to 24 years in prison Friday morning for sexually abusing one of his skaters. This is her victim impact statement provided to the court.

www.fox9.com

 

[hoptoad]

Bumping this up because it appears that the NYT article has been updated:

Figure Skating Coach Sentenced to 24 Years for Sexual Abuse (Published 2019)

The sport is rattled by yet another scandal, raising more questions about why officials are not keeping athletes safe in Olympic sports.

www.nytimes.com

Mr. Incantalupo was a prominent coach in the Twin Cities area. He coached up-and-coming skaters in international events in 2008 and 2010, but U.S. Figure Skating, the national governing body, said on Friday that Mr. Incantalupo had not coached elite skaters.

I wonder if they were quibbling over the definition of "elite."

I also want to add that I didn't read the Fox article above until just now and it has a lot of disturbing details about how certain "coaches" manage this sort of thing. Apparently he had fake social media accounts and was stalking her and her social circle online. So disturbing.

 

[Perky Shae Lynn]

This is disgusting. I feel like a need to take a shower just after reading about this man's actions.

 

[Aerobicidal]

As a Minnesotan and a skating fan, I'm interested in this news, as disturbing and horrific as it is. The survivor is incredibly brave and her impact statement was hard to read but I'm glad I read it.

There are some other things I want to add but there's no point.

 

[bethy135]

This is all so very sad. My heart hurts for the victim. I just don't understand how people can be such monsters and I guess that's likely part of the problem. It's so hard to believe because what he did was so awful!! I most definitely believe the victim.

 

[Erin]

As a Minnesotan and a skating fan, I'm interested in this news, as disturbing and horrific as it is. The survivor is incredibly brave and her impact statement was hard to read but I'm glad I read it.

There are some other things I want to add but there's no point.

This post sums up a lot of what I want to say.

I will add that I find it hard to understand how anyone could read that impact statement and not feel pain for the girl. But there are a lot of things I don’t understand about some people on this board.

 

[bethy135]

Bumping this up because it appears that the NYT article has been updated:

Figure Skating Coach Sentenced to 24 Years for Sexual Abuse (Published 2019)

The sport is rattled by yet another scandal, raising more questions about why officials are not keeping athletes safe in Olympic sports.

www.nytimes.com

I wonder if they were quibbling over the definition of "elite."

What, does USFSA believe "elite" skaters deserve more protection than regular ones??? And never mind what this monster did, they just need to make sure the term "elite" is attributed only to skaters of a certain caliber. Oh gosh.

 

[kittyjake5]

That poor girl, what she went through and is still going through. It took a lot of courage for her to read the statement in court.
I am so glad that this piece of dirt got a nice lengthy prison term for what he did.

 

[Artistic Skaters]

The skater's statement is well written and moving. The details of this case in the police and court records indicate the actions by this coach were much worse than even the news reports have outlined. The skater also helped the police obtain evidence after she reported the abuse when she met with the coach and recorded his damaging statements. It's a lot of responsibility placed on young shoulders, but I have a real appreciation for her efforts to help prevent this kind of abuse.