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Veteran athletes are skilled at compartmentalizing. They can focus on competing as outside events threaten to distract and derail them.
So it was for U.S. Olympic snowboarders Lindsey Jacobellis, 36, and Nick Baumgartner, 40, on Friday.
They raced in the inaugural mixed team cross at the Beijing Winter Games as a team crisis was intensifying. Former snowboarder Callan Chythlook-Sifsof alleged this week that coach Peter Foley sexually harassed her, that men’s snowboarder Hagen Kearney acted in a racist manner toward her and that Kearney and former snowboarder Trevor Jacob were misogynistic in team settings.
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Jacobellis and Baumgartner won gold amid all that and then fielded questions about the allegations.
HISTORIC GOLD for @TeamUSA!@LindsJacobellis and Nick Baumgartner win gold in the first-ever Olympic mixed team snowboard cross! #WinterOlympics | #WatchWithUS
? : @nbc and @peacockTV
? : https://t.co/PXMUVgJZ8P pic.twitter.com/aRsLjp7pDG— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 12, 2022
“It’s definitely been super upsetting to have that when we’re trying to focus and it definitely breaks up our team energy a little bit,” Jacobellis said, per Yahoo Sports.
Both of them praised Foley, who has been the U.S. coach since 1994.
“But in my 20 years on the team I can speak very highly of his character. He’s always been supporting me through everything I’ve gone through, and he helped me find an amazing mental health coach to help me prepare for this moment here today,” Jacobellis added, per Yahoo.
“I can’t speak any higher of that man. He’s done so much for us. All the coolest moments of my life have been alongside that man. I love that guy like a father,” Baumgartner said, per Yahoo.
“I was proud to be able to show everyone what I was worth.”@nickbaumgartner and @LindsJacobellis react to winning a historic Olympic gold medal in mixed team snowboard cross. #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/JgWNct5Fc9
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 12, 2022
Chythlook-Sifsof, 32, was a team member from 2005-14 and competed in the 2010 Winter Olympics. She accused Foley on Sunday of harassment and of taking “naked” photos of female athletes “for over a decade.” She alleged that Kearney regularly used the N-word to “get under my skin” and told rape jokes. She accused Jacob of telling coaches in a team setting about a sexual encounter.
She also said that “(o)ther athletes have in engaged in racist, misogynist behavior, actively participated in the strange dynamics that Peter Foley created and caused female athletes/staff to be victims of sexual violence.”
“The people I’ve named have overtly behaved toxically but the truth is the culture on the team protected this behavior,” she wrote Thursday on Instagram. “Things have been normalized that are not okay.”
Foley “vehemently” denied the allegations Saturday, USA Today reported.
Kearney wrote on Instagram he used the N-word “in a joking context” in 2013 during an argument with Chythlook-Sifsof on a team van ride “to aggravate her.” (Chythlook-Sifsof wrote that the argument took place at the team’s last 2014 Olympic qualifier in Canada.) Kearney wrote that he apologized to Chythlook-Sifsof the next day and she eventually accepted.
“It was an act of utter stupidity and disgusting behavior on my part,” he wrote.
But he denied Chythlook-Sifsof’s allegations that he faked a punch toward her and yelled the N-word multiple times during the incident. He also denied her claim about rape jokes.
Jacob responded angrily on Instagram.
“The only possible way you could gain significance from this Olympics is by tearing others down with false information,” he wrote. “You just weren’t good enough to qualify. I doubt you’d be saying this stuff if you made the team.” He ended his post with “F— you.”
U.S. Ski & Snowboarding says an investigation is underway, but it is not clear who is in charge of it. Outsports.com was first to report that the probe was taking place.
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