TJ Nyman accused of rape (Dalilah Sappenfield accused of supporting him)

[Coco]

I see he goes to Mary Lee Tracy's church.

 

[Michelle]

Okay, don't judge but I assumed he was gay so this is very surprising to me. Anyways, I really feel for those girls because Safe Sport moves at a pace slower than a snail and when your abuser and his enabler are allowed to be around other skaters it's anxiety inducing because you know those people are not fit to be in those positions. Dalilah needs to be banned, along with TJ. USFS cannot handle a scandal like USAG and we all know there's too many predators in this sport. USFS needs to get out ahead of this.

 

[Frau Muller]

If the accusations are true, then may he soon be wearing vertical black and white stripes instead of horizontal ones.

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This is horizontal. Maybe outside of the US they’re vertical?

 

[Braulio]

by some comments on instagram post from Nyman also Sierra Venetta supports him

 

[Judy]

Wooooooooooooooooooooow. I don't even have words.

I only see a picture?

 

[meggonzo]

And the quote is copied almost word for word from a guy that was charged today for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the feet. Classy.

 

[overedge]

And then there's this from TJ on the Instagram post, responding to someone criticizing all the "likes":

tommyxjo

@augustflowerchild I support all survivors and I always will

He needs to get off social media ASAP before he digs that hole any deeper.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

More than one skater eager to jump to defense in the comments of his Instagram post. Usually that sort of thing doesn’t age well.

 

[Willin]

This was on Twitter:
As a reminder, Emma Tang was reportedly harassed out of Broadmoor by fellow skaters and COACHES because Emma said she believed an athlete who reported that John Coughlin raped the athlete while the athlete was sleeping.

She says she was not harassed out of Broadmoor.

Twitter

Even so Broadmoor is the center of a lot of toxicity and it's pretty obvious and for obvious reasons. There's a reason the non-CS skaters are more willing to say stuff.

What the hell has been going on all these years in Sappenfield's camp?!

Nothing to stop it. She knows USFS has her back.

I would assume the skaters liking it are sad they missed out on the annual champs camp PR training.
But more realistically a lot of these skaters are sheltered in their insular community with their skating friends and other elite skaters and not a whole lot of real life perspective or experience. A lot of them don't see their "nice guy" classmates sexually assaulting or groping at bars while drunk in college. They don't see their favorite teacher get caught doing drugs at work. They don't see the student and TA sneaking out for 15 minutes to have a quickie or the college guy taking high schoolers to his car for a hook up. They don't have a lot of friends who will share their own stories openly. They probably just see their good friend and naively think he can't be hiding something like that.

Not only that, but because it's insular speaking out or refusing to toe the line means you face consequences. And nowhere is that truer than at Broadmoor where USFS and their favorite coaches (Dalilah included) see and hear everything.

 

[overedge]

Ugh, I had forgotten until @Willin mentioned it that USFS headquarters is in the same city as the rink where Dalilah coaches. So it's not like the USFS couldn't easily drop by and keep an eye on things.

 

[Willin]

@overedge And the whole thing that some USFS staffers go there to skate sometimes and are friends with the coaches/skaters there.

 

[greenapple]

Ugh, I had forgotten until @Willin mentioned it that USFS headquarters is in the same city as the rink where Dalilah coaches. So it's not like the USFS couldn't easily drop by and keep an eye on things.

The rink where Sappenfield coaches is not in the same city as the USFS headquarters. She coaches in Monument - the USFS is in Colorado Springs.

 

[Debbie S]

The rink where Sappenfield coaches is not in the same city as the USFS headquarters. She coaches in Monument - the USFS is in Colorado Springs.

I thought she and her group were at Broadmoor, did that change recently? Monument isn't that far from CO Springs, anyway.

 

[seabm7]

I thought she and her group were at Broadmoor, did that change recently? Monument isn't that far from CO Springs, anyway.

Yes, her group moved to Munument this summer.

 

[Debbie S]

Yes, her group moved to Munument this summer.

Thanks. So the change was very recent. Willin's post essentially stands.

 

[Aaron MB Fan]

From Emma Tang’s IG stories, this tweet was posted by a survivor from TJ:

https://twitter.com/annoymo13297762/status/1314377602069602304?s=21

 

[Gris]

On a more positive note, Pfund and Santillan tweeted their support to the survivors.

https://twitter.com/joshesantillan/status/1314287157931106305

 

[Frau Muller]

Yes, her group moved to Munument this summer.

Related to allegations?

 

[Willin]

@Frau Muller I was wondering myself given that Tom Z (the rink's skating director IIRC) and USFS has some control over who's allowed to coach at World Arena. Given that these complaints were submitted to USFS and safesport (with no progress - hence the tweets), it might be pre-leak PR control.

However the more likely, Occam's razor explanation, is that when Kori Ade left monument she also left a hole in the skating director position that hasn't found a good replacement. The rink may be offering her good money or a good deal to take that job and her skaters there. Or she pissed Tom Z off (Kori was banned from WA because Tom saw her as an unfriendly rival). Or someone she's friends with is the skating director at Monument and offered her a good deal to set up shop. I'm not into the Colorado gossip loop, but that'd be my guess.

 

[insideedgeua]

@Frau Muller I was wondering myself given that Tom Z (the rink's skating director IIRC) and USFS has some control over who's allowed to coach at World Arena. Given that these complaints were submitted to USFS and safesport (with no progress - hence the tweets), it might be pre-leak PR control.

However the more likely, Occam's razor explanation, is that when Kori Ade left monument she also left a hole in the skating director position that hasn't found a good replacement. The rink may be offering her good money or a good deal to take that job and her skaters there. Or she pissed Tom Z off (Kori was banned from WA because Tom saw her as an unfriendly rival). Or someone she's friends with is the skating director at Monument and offered her a good deal to set up shop. I'm not into the Colorado gossip loop, but that'd be my guess.

Tom Z is not the skating director at World Arena.

 

[Theoreticalgirl]

The rink where Sappenfield coaches is not in the same city as the USFS headquarters. She coaches in Monument - the USFS is in Colorado Springs.

It is literally a 20 minute drive from the Monument rink to World Arena, AFA Cadet, Sertich, Honnen, USFS HQ, etc. Given the close proximity, it wouldn't be out of place for USFS to swing by—and they do.

 

[Theoreticalgirl]

However the more likely, Occam's razor explanation, is that when Kori Ade left monument she also left a hole in the skating director position that hasn't found a good replacement. The rink may be offering her good money or a good deal to take that job and her skaters there.

This rink primarily serves a hockey audience. Both 7K (Kori's group) and DS have contract buys with Monument. When Kori left, some of the coaches who did not follow her to TN stayed there.

From my perspective, it looked they were doing well in the post-Kori period. Chris Dean was guest coaching there. It looked like they were focusing on developmental skaters, rather than catering to the elite track. I was surprised to see DS move in.

None of the coaching staff from the interim appears to have stayed on board. Even in the new incarnation, DS is not the skating director—that would be Robyn Petroskey. DS is only listed as a consultant.

 

[Natanielle825]

SafeSport is apparently already investigating this

Good thing my dog is on it too or we'd be screwed.

If TJ knew that this was going to break, I'm confused on what he was trying to accomplish by going on TSL Live yesterday.

It has been so hard to give up TSL because I never get to talk about skating with anyone offline but I'm about to do it. I don't know how to defend this. They say he imposed himself on the stream but Dave could have cut him off anytime or just ended the stream. I stopped watching after 5 minutes of Dave asking him about his music career, making jokes about how he treats women, and suggesting other girls he would give to Nyman as partners. He'll call out someone as an abuser and rapist then laud praises on their tactics. He is too fascinated by evil people, Nyman being one of many. Skaters, especially girls, are pawns to him.

They are saying on Twitter that Nyman's actions have been an open secret

This is the culture of skating. Everyone knows and accepts it as fact. **** safe sport and these federations. Aly Raisman and others are still begging for a criminal investigation in gymnastics. How can we get them involved in these sports??

 

[mackiecat]

One of of the skaters who commented on TJ’s post-her Pringle says she is a 9 year old skating princes. What are her parents thinking?

 

[Frau Muller]

Does anyone know:
How long did his latest partnership - with the Russian Nadezhda Labazina - last? Did TJ actually get to Russia to train...or did the pair train in the US...or just wishful thinking?

 

[Judy]

Could someone give me background on the entire events leading up to this? I haven’t really been following skating in a couple of years and I am not familiar with the coach and TJ. How does the coach factor into this?

 

[Gris]

I stopped watching after 5 minutes of Dave asking him about his music career, making jokes about how he treats women, and suggesting other girls he would give to Nyman as partners.

So this is the paid content they put on Patreon? Major yikes.

 

[caseyedwards]

Minors who are victims of sexual abuse are never "named and shamed" in order to protect them.

There isn’t even a report from an unnamed victim! There apparently is no victim making any report at all! Tang says she was not a victim. That it’s all second hand from unknown people! This is absurd. The Only known victim so far is Nyman from me too mob

 

[Lemonade20]

There isn’t even a report from an unnamed victim! There apparently is no victim making any report at all! Tang says she was not a victim. That it’s all second hand from unknown people! This is absurd. The Only known victim so far is Nyman from me too mob

Would you rather know who the victims are?

 

[twizzletoes76]

I wasn’t going to chime in because I always seem to get attacked for whatever I say in this forum—but, right now, all I can see is that there is an allegation against this pairs skater from a third party (not a direct victim) on a social media platform. At this point, I have zero opinion on the matter other than Nyman is completely clueless if he thinks posting on social media accounts and going on live skating shows while being investigated by SafeSport is a good idea. Additionally, I do not need to know the name/names of possible victims to take an allegation seriously—but until any information is made public that involves substantial information (such as a time, a location, some circumstantial details), I’m certainly not going to call this guy a rapist or an abuser. Those are extremely serious charges that should not be taken lightly or just thrown around on social media platforms unless there is real evidence to back them up. And, even if evidence does appear, I think it is still important to watch how we condemn people on media channels. Anyways, I’ve said enough here. I think let’s just wait to see what SafeSport comes up with (however faulty they are) before we judge.

[As a side question, I would also ask: did the SafeSport investigation start before the girl went on social media to condemn the guy, or, did the investigation start as a result of what she wrote? I think it’s an interesting question to consider.]