The moment I picked up the story a few days ago about the suicide of John Coughlin, I pretty much could've written the entire story out.
Coughlin was a prominent pairs skater who became a coach in the sport by the time he turned 30.
However, in the last several weeks, three complaints to the clearinghouse SafeSport surfaced of sexual misconduct (making figure skating the sixth prominent Olympic sport in this country to be hit with the #MeToo revelations).
The first one caused a Restriction label to be put on Coughlin's coaching career -- that one was from a party that was of the age of consent.
The next two were (as most of these USOC scandals have been) from underage girls. Once those were received, he was formally banned -- and, within 24 hours, he had taken his life.
Someone has to ban the United States from the Olympic movement. Are we literally going to have to get scandals like this in every Olympic sport to make it clear that there is a state (or at least committee)-sponsored culture of sexual harassment and misconduct, used as a screening device for female athletes in this country?
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