US Figure Skating Coach Banned for Life After Disturbing Allegations

Dalilah Sap­pen­field, a promi­nent US Olympic pairs fig­ure skat­ing coach, has been banned for life by the US Cen­ter for Safe­S­port after a two-and-a-half-year inves­ti­ga­tion into alle­ga­tions of misconduct.

The life­time ban comes after Safe­S­port found Sap­pen­field cul­pa­ble of phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al mis­con­duct, retal­i­a­tion, abuse of process, and fail­ure to report a poten­tial Safe­S­port vio­la­tion. Sap­pen­field was pre­vi­ous­ly tem­porar­i­ly barred from coach­ing dur­ing the investigation.

The alle­ga­tions include ver­bal abuse that led one of Sap­pen­field­’s for­mer skaters, 2016 US pairs cham­pi­on Tarah Kayne, to cut her own wrist with a razor blade in 2019. Kayne report­ed that Sap­pen­field con­stant­ly spoke inap­pro­pri­ate­ly about sex and made fun of Kayne’s men­tal health struggles.

There were also alle­ga­tions of Sap­pen­field hous­ing a 16-year-old female Russ­ian pairs skater at her Col­orado Springs home in 2020, which vio­lates Safe­S­port rules pro­hibit­ing coach­es from hous­ing minor athletes.

Safe­S­port CEO Ju’Riese Colon stat­ed that the life­time ban rep­re­sents progress in “cre­at­ing long-term cul­ture change” in the sport, hold­ing those who engage in “tox­ic tac­tics” account­able. The deci­sion under­scores the orga­ni­za­tion’s com­mit­ment to fos­ter­ing safe envi­ron­ments for athletes.

Sap­pen­field has the right to appeal the life­time ban, but the rul­ing sends a strong mes­sage about the need for account­abil­i­ty and pro­tect­ing ath­letes from abu­sive coach­ing prac­tices in fig­ure skat­ing and oth­er sports.