Olympic Figure Skater Says She Was Assaulted When She Was 17
A U.S. Olympic figure skater is speaking out, saying she was sexually assaulted when she was a teenager. Ashley Wagner, 28, who won the bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Games, said it happened at a party when she was just 17 years old. She accused John Coughlin, a two-time U.S. pairs figure skating champion, of kissing and fondling her while she pretended to be asleep in bed. The prominent skater died by suicide last January after being suspended from all sanctioned skating activities as he faced sexual misconduct allegations from three different women. RELATED STORIESMystery Surrounds What Happened to Jeffrey Epstein Inside Jail Cell: Today on Inside EditionDid Disgraced Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein Try to Hang Himself in Jail?
Ashley Wagner says she was sexually assaulted by John Coughlin
Figure Skating Championships at the SAP Center on Jan. 5, 2018, in San Jose, California. "What happened to Ashley should not happen to anyone, period," US Figure Skating spokeswoman Barbara Reichert said in a statement to CNN on Thursday. "Ashley recently spoke at US Figure Skating athlete safety seminars and her experience and message of empowerment had a profound impact on skaters and their parents. I was offered up a bed and didn't think twice about taking it, and soon drifted off to sleep." It was in the middle of the night, Wagner says, when Coughlin sexually assaulted her.