Keeping Track of Criminal Cases & SafeSport Suspensions in Skating

The survivor in the Sorensen case has come forward publicly. Lori Ward has an on-camera interview with her. It's paid subscribers only, so I've seen only the first six minutes.

open.substack.com

Exclusive: The Survivor in the Nikolaj Sørensen Case Speaks Publicly for the First Time

She says she is ready to “put a face and name to the story” — and hopes to push for change in the sport.
open.substack.com open.substack.com

One of the reasons she's speaking publicly now, she says, was the dismissive way that F-B/C spoke about her.
 
Wyliefan said:
The survivor in the Sorensen case has come forward publicly. Lori Ward has an on-camera interview with her. It's paid subscribers only, so I've seen only the first six minutes.

open.substack.com

Exclusive: The Survivor in the Nikolaj Sørensen Case Speaks Publicly for the First Time

She says she is ready to “put a face and name to the story” — and hopes to push for change in the sport.
open.substack.com open.substack.com

One of the reasons she's speaking publicly now, she says, was the dismissive way that F-B/C spoke about her.
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I opted to become a paid subscriber to listen to the whole interview - it's about 35 minutes long. It's a difficult but powerful listen and she's incredibly brave for making her name public. She's trying to start a foundation to help other abuse survivors. Here's a link to the fundraiser.
 
I also got a paid subscription. It's only $5 for a month or $36 for the year. It was worth it to watch the whole interview and support Lori Ward for her work. She's done so many good stories in figure skating already.
Like Former Lurve Goddess said, it's a powerful listen. She goes into exactly what happened the night of her assault and talks about the culture of silence in skating and why she thought coming forward would get her blacklisted in the sport.
Sending strength to her today!
 
Former Lurve Goddess said:
It's a difficult but powerful listen and she's incredibly brave for making her name public.
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I agree that she is incredibly brave for speaking out, although it’s sad that our society and sport are such that bravery is required to report assault. I also found her to appear highly credible and the circumstances under which the assault took place appear to leave no room for disagreement about consent. I hope she is able to heal and that her actions lead to meaningful changes for victims.
 
Several people here have been very vocal about this case, and I would strongly encourage all of you to subscribe to this Substack for 5 USD to hear the full conversation with Ashley Foy. It might help you understand why I believe organizations like SafeSport and OSIC have failed survivors and basically enabled someone like Sorensen to get away without consequences long-term.


She describes the investigation as a grueling, multi-year process that produced thousands of pages of documentation and took a massive toll on her life, including her job and her family. Even after all that, she expressed total frustration over the lack of clarity regarding basic processes and jurisdiction!! She asked a vital question that we should all consider: why would an organization put someone who has already been through so much trauma through nearly three years of investigations and tribunals if they didn't even have their jurisdiction figured out?

As she said, it simply is not acceptable. These organizations need to be either built on a proper legal foundation or abolished entirely and replaced with something that actually provides accountability. We cannot keep supporting a system that puts survivors through years of re-traumatization only to have the results overturned on technicalities they should have settled on day one.
 
Debbie S said:
If she and Gabi are friends, then it's not surprising that Gabi was so insistent on not sharing practice ice with Sorensen. To which her coaches and Guillaume basically said, 'too bad, deal with it' and then essentially dumped her. :mad:
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We try and leave our small town every time our child's abuser visits. Most certainly wouldn't want to ever risk any of our family members or any vulnerable young skaters being in the same building as him.
 
kwanfan1818 said:
The jurisdictional issue is being re-evaluated, as the original decision about jurisdiction is being questioned.
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But we all knew jurisdiction was going to be an issue from day one. So TPTB should have crossed their ts and dotted their is including consulting with a lawyer about what the best jurisdiction would be. Maybe they did but it doesn't seem that way.

Also, this isn't the first time that jurisdiction has been a problem. This means the system is not set up properly. It assumes that sports are national but Olympics sports are definitely international. People live in one country and have citizenship and/or membership with another all the time. The system needs to be designed to handle that and it clearly isn't.
 
jmtfti said:
I actually had started following Ashley's Just Ice No Abuse account on Instagram last year when she had started it, of course having no idea of her direct connection to the Sorensen case. Very glad she feels in the right place now to come forward with her identity.
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She's got a Substack of her own, too: https://justicenoabuse.substack.com/
 
www.fox4news.com

Figure skating coach arrest: affidavit reveals coach acknowledged "sexual relationship" with alleged victim

The Allen figure skating coach arrested last week acknowledged a "sexual relationship" with one of the alleged victims, according to police documents obtained by FOX 4.
www.fox4news.com www.fox4news.com

www.aol.com

North Texas figure skating coach arrested on sexual assault charges

North Texas figure skating coach Benjamin Shroats has been arrested and charged with indecency with a child and sexual assault following an investigation into alleged inappropriate relationships with two of his athletes.
www.aol.com www.aol.com
 
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OrioleBeagle said:
www.fox4news.com

Figure skating coach arrest: affidavit reveals coach acknowledged "sexual relationship" with alleged victim

The Allen figure skating coach arrested last week acknowledged a "sexual relationship" with one of the alleged victims, according to police documents obtained by FOX 4.
www.fox4news.com www.fox4news.com

www.aol.com

North Texas figure skating coach arrested on sexual assault charges

North Texas figure skating coach Benjamin Shroats has been arrested and charged with indecency with a child and sexual assault following an investigation into alleged inappropriate relationships with two of his athletes.
www.aol.com www.aol.com
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I posted this when it happened. Our rink sent us an email about it as well telling anyone with information or suspicions to report it to the police and Safesport.
 
MacMadame said:
But we all knew jurisdiction was going to be an issue from day one. So TPTB should have crossed their ts and dotted their is including consulting with a lawyer about what the best jurisdiction would be. Maybe they did but it doesn't seem that way.

Also, this isn't the first time that jurisdiction has been a problem. This means the system is not set up properly. It assumes that sports are national but Olympics sports are definitely international. People live in one country and have citizenship and/or membership with another all the time. The system needs to be designed to handle that and it clearly isn't.
Click to expand...


What makes you think that they didn't consult a lawyer? They had Sorenson's consent. Just because one official on appeal overturned the original jurisdictional decision and found the consent unenforceable - on highly controversial reasoning - doesn't mean they didn't.

Also, contrary to common misconceptions, rules and the law are not always crystal clear one way or the other. If there was not an alternative way to pursue this with 100% crystal clear jurisdiction, do you think they should have just not pursued this matter because there was an outside chance they might lose on jurisdictional grounds? I certainly don't, and I'm glad most lawyers don't view things that way or the state of the law would be worse for it. It is unethical for lawyers to file complaints when there is not a good faith basis in the facts and law for doing so. That doesn't mean they will win or that the law is entirely clear.

I'm glad that there were findings in this case and that the truth came out. Regardless of the ultimate jurisdictional decision, IMO, anyone who allows Sorenson to be around their skaters should be ashamed of themselves.

Debbie S said:
If she and Gabi are friends, then it's not surprising that Gabi was so insistent on not sharing practice ice with Sorensen. To which her coaches and Guillaume basically said, 'too bad, deal with it' and then essentially dumped her. :mad:
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Even if they weren't friends, I can see why Gabi would be insistent on Sorenson not being there.
 
Allskate said:
What makes you think that they didn't consult a lawyer?
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I said "Maybe they did but it doesn't seem that way."

do you think they should have just not pursued this matter because there was an outside chance they might lose on jurisdictional grounds?
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Oh yes, that's exactly what saying that the IOC needs to address jurisdiction issues instead of acting like they don't exist means. /s

This is not the only case mired in issues of jurisdiction. Too many abusers are getting away with their abuse via these technicalities and the IOC needs to step up and fix it because no one else is in a position to do so.
 
MacMadame said:
Oh yes, that's exactly what saying that the IOC needs to address jurisdiction issues instead of acting like they don't exist means. /s

This is not the only case mired in issues of jurisdiction. Too many abusers are getting away with their abuse via these technicalities and the IOC needs to step up and fix it because no one else is in a position to do so.
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It's only becoming more and more of a problem as more and more athletes in all sports are training in countries they do not represent or are switching countries more often.
 
Willin said:
It's only becoming more and more of a problem as more and more athletes in all sports are training in countries they do not represent or are switching countries more often.
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That has always happened. In all sports. It was happening when SafeSport was set up. That they set it up the way they have shows that they don't understand how elite sports work.
 
Sometimes I think that there may be a fine line between bullying and strong coaching?

I do not know the details of this allegation but I can definitely see MD as being a very strict, serious coach. She was the same as an athlete and I always admired her work ethic and formula for success. Her method worked for her obviously.

Some people may find her overpowering and feel bullied?
 
Winnipeg said:
Sometimes I think that there may be a fine line between bullying and strong coaching?

I do not know the details of this allegation but I can definitely see MD as being a very strict, serious coach. She was the same as an athlete and I always admired her work ethic and formula for success. Her method worked for her obviously.

Some people may find her overpowering and feel bullied?
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From the previous comments it seems like this may be a conflict between coaches, rather than a student complaining about a coach. Nonetheless, this argument is not a justification for bullying behaviour by a coach. A good coach adjusts their coaching style to suit the student's style of learning. If a student feels they are being bullied, that is more important than whether the coach thinks they were just being a "strong" coach.
 
my little pony said:
I assume this is for yelling at the coach bruno was ****ing but then is there no suspension for ****ing the coach who is under him? (literally and figuratively)
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If the other coach is an adult and doesn't receive evaluations/raises from Bruno, there is nothing illegal about them having an affair. It would be, however, for Meagan to harass her, especially at the rink. If she wanted to scream at someone, it should have been Bruno. Then walk away because he's not worth her time.
 
rfisher said:
If the other coach is an adult and doesn't receive evaluations/raises from Bruno, there is nothing illegal about them having an affair. It would be, however, for Meagan to harass her, especially at the rink. If she wanted to scream at someone, it should have been Bruno. Then walk away because he's not worth her time.
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He was fired for it so while not illegal it seems to be outside the values and ethics of the club.

I think she showed great restraint to only behave in a way that garnered a mere 2 week suspension. YMMV
 
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