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Former United States Ski and Snowboard head coach Peter Foley has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by three former athletes and a former employee.
Per ESPN’s Alyssa Roenigk and Tisha Thompson, the four women lodged complaints against Foley with the U.S. Center for SafeSport last week.
In interviews with Roegnigk and Thompson, the women alleged they “had to tolerate sexual misconduct because Foley controlled which athletes were selected to go to the Olympics and they feared he would retaliate by withholding Olympic opportunities or ending their employment.”
One Olympic gold medalist told Roegnigk and Thompson that her complained filed with SafeSport “includes an allegation that Foley sexually assaulted her while she participated in a U.S. training camp he ran when she was 19.”
At the end of training camp, she said Foley told the athletes they would be sleeping in the same room together before taking a flight the next day.
The athlete said at one point when she was asleep she felt Foley “sneak in behind me in the bed” and he “reached his left arm over my body and put his fingers inside me.”
She went on to say she just laid “there in shock” and he eventually “just stopped and he got up and left.”
Lindsey Sine Nikola, a U.S. Ski and Snowboard employee from 2006-10, said she filed a report with SafeSport last week alleging that Foley “coerced her into taking nude photos and later sexually assaulted her at a World Cup ski race in December 2008.”
Nikola also alleged Foley said he “wants to do something physical with me” after he crawled into her bed and asked to rub her back, which she initially consented to after initially feeling uncomfortable.
“I am stunned because my gut was trying to tell me all along that I should remove myself from the situation and I was telling myself I was overreacting,” Nikola explained. “But I wasn’t. I said ‘no.’ I said, ‘Listen. No. You’re married. There’s a million reasons why this isn’t going to happen, but no.'”
She said Foley eventually touched her breasts and genitals without her consent.
Allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior by Foley became public last month when Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, a member of the 2010 U.S. Olympic snowboard team, wrote a series of posts on Instagram accusing him of taking naked pictures of athletes for more than a decade and making inappropriate and racist comments to athletes.
Erin O’Malley, former U.S. snowboarder, alleged Foley pinned her against a wall and tried to kiss her after a postrace event.
“What I can see in my mind is Peter’s body pressed against me and my back against the wall of the elevator,” O’Malley said. “From there I remember thinking ‘Oh s—, Peter is following us to our room.'”
U.S. Ski and Snowboard announced Sunday that Foley was no longer employed by the organization. Rob Fagen has taken over as interim head coach.
The U.S. Center for SafeSport announced a temporary suspension for Foley on March 18 pending a formal investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct.
Foley spent 27 years as head coach of the United States snowboard team since its inception in 1994.
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