US snowboard team coach Peter Foley, who is at the Beijing Olympics, was accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by former snowboarder Callan Chythlook-Sifsof in posts on Instagram on Friday.
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The Alaskan-born snowboarder, who will turn 33 on February 14, claims that “Peter Foley has been taking photos of sportswomen for over a decade” and that he made sexual comments to her and another member of the American Olympic team, in Lake Louise (Canada) in 2014.
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Peter Foley.
“I can no longer watch the Olympic Games without saying so publicly,” said the American on the social network.
Reached by AFP, the American Olympic Committee did not respond to requests.
“We take these accusations very seriously and are currently investigating,” the American Ski and Snowboard Federation told several American media.
In addition, Chythlook-Sifsof also implicates a snowboarder present in China, Hagen Kearney, whom it accuses of having used a racist expression against him and of having engaged in acts of harassment.
AFP
Callan Chythlook-Sifsof (left) and Lindsey Jacobellis.
“I won’t keep these things silent any longer,” she said on Instagram. “There has been widespread bizarre behavior. The people I identified behaved in a toxic way, but the truth is that the culture within the team protected those kinds of behaviors. Things that weren’t normal have become normal.”
“Other athletes engaged in racist and misogynistic behavior and actively participated in the bizarre dynamic that Peter Foley created that resulted in sexual violence against female athletes and team members.”
Callan Chythlook-Sifsof was part of the American snowboarding team present at the Olympic Games in Vancouver (Canada) in 2010 and was eliminated in qualifying. Peter Foley has coached the USA Snowboard Team since 1994.