US Olympic skater: ‘I was sexually assaulted’

Olympic figure skater Ashley Wagner on Thursday became the second person to accuse late pair skater John Coughlin of sexual assault, doing so in a column penned for USA Today.

Wagner, a 2014 bronze medalist, describes the incident as taking place at a party in June 2008 in Colorado Springs when she was 17 years old and Coughlin was 22.

She writes that after she was unable to find a ride home, she stayed the night, during which Coughlin crawled into the bed and assaulted her.

{mosads}Wagner writes she struggled with coming forward earlier even as more women have openly shared their experiences with rape and sexual misconduct in recent years, and she said she “wrestled with” whether to name Coughlin after he took his own life in January. But, ultimately, she decided her credibility would be questioned unless she identified him by name.

“The bottom line is, people need to talk more about this. As a 17-year-old in skating, my social world was so small. As a man in his 20s in skating, his social scene was also minuscule, mostly teenagers competing in the sport,” Wagner writes.

“This is a pressure-cooker environment that will continue to create uncomfortable, inappropriate and unsafe workplaces unless something is done about it,” she adds.

Champion figure skater Bridget Namiotka also made allegations against Coughlin in May in a now-deleted Facebook comment, writing that Coughlin “sexually abused me for 2 years.”

“Grooming happens. It happened to me and he hurt a lot of girls. Think about the victims,” she added.

The Hill has reached out to Fireworks Sports and Entertainment, whose president, Tara Modlin, was Coughlin’s agent, for comment.