Skater accused of sex assault shouldn't be at world championships, victim's attorney says

Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual abuse that may be offensive to some readers or painful to survivors of sexual assault.

MONTREAL – The attorney for the alleged sexual assault victim of Canadian Olympic figure skater Nikolaj Sørensen told USA TODAY Sports Thursday that comments recently made by Sørensen amount to “retaliation” against the victim that should have resulted in his suspension from this week’s world championships.

At a Skate Canada media availability March 6, when asked about the allegations against him and the resulting investigation by Canada’s Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner, Sørensen told reporters that he thought the “intention” of the victim of the alleged sexual assault was to “damage” him. 

“When something like that comes out in the media, the damage is kind of done and I think that was the intention more than anything,” Sørensen said. He has denied the allegations. 

Nancy Hogshead, an Olympic gold medalist and well-known Title IX attorney who is representing the victim, said Sørensen’s comments “impugned the motives of the person reporting rape to OSIC, a type of retaliation prohibited by OSIC.”

She cited Rule 5.14.2 of OSIC’s Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport which says “retaliation includes threatening, intimidating, harassing, coercing, negatively interfering with sport participation, or any other conduct that would discourage a reasonable person from engaging or participating in an investigation or disciplinary review process…”

Said Hogshead: “Nikolaj Sørensen has no evidence of the victim’s motives. His statement is clearly designed to discredit the veracity of the victim, and is therefore retaliation for filing a complaint. He should not be able to compete in the world championships because he is violating the rules prohibiting retaliation when he defamed the victim for filing a claim.” 

Abuse-Free Sport, the program under which OSIC operates, and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada have known about Sørensen’s statement since at least March 12, when asked about it by USA TODAY Sports. A spokeswoman has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter. 

Sørensen and his ice dance partner, Laurence Fournier Beaudry, are scheduled to begin competition in the world championships Friday. 

When asked by USA TODAY Sports through her attorney for her reaction to Sørensen’s comments, the victim of the alleged sexual assault said she would speak out for the first time.

“I never planned to comment during the investigation but seeing the respondent publicly comment has led me to say something now,” the woman said in a text message.

“When I filed with OSIC, my only intention was to ensure that potential vulnerable parties would be safe from the respondent should he decide to become a coach, where his power dynamic would be even more dangerous than it is between fellow athletes. 

“I hoped the case would remain confidential, fair and thorough so the best possible outcome would prevail based on all of the evidence in a way that would not affect those who must train or compete with the respondent,” she said. “I wanted to ensure athletes were ultimately kept safe from my attacker and that nobody would ever have to face the horror I faced in 2012, and the trauma endured since then.

“I look forward to this case being resolved and hope it will set a precedent for other rapists that they will not get away with such heinous crimes, and that our sport will support victims more carefully to make it safe for all.”

The woman is not being identified because USA TODAY Sports does not publish the names of victims of alleged sexual assault.

USA TODAY Sports reported in early January that Sørensen, one of the world’s top-ranked ice dancers, was being investigated by OSIC for the alleged sexual assault of an American figure skating coach and former skater on April 21, 2012, according to documents and emails.

The documents said Sørensen held the woman down against her will on a bed after a party at a condominium near Hartford, Connecticut. At the time, she was 22 and Sørensen was 23.

“He pinned me down with his left arm over my collarbone,” the woman said in a report made to OSIC and the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a copy of which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports. “He pushed down hard on my collarbone, making me gasp for air the moment he inserted his penis into my vagina and covered his right hand over my mouth.”

The report continued: “All sound at that point became virtually inaudible and it felt like I would suffocate under the pressure of his arm on my collarbone and chest. I pushed my arms against his hips to try to get his penis out of me and I was struggling to breathe. At this point, I feared for my life and let my body go limp as I lay there and he raped me.”

Sørensen, now 35, competed for his native Denmark earlier in his career, then represented Canada starting in the 2018-19 skating season. He became a Canadian citizen in September 2021. He finished ninth at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and fifth at last year’s world championships with Fournier Beaudry. They finished fifth at the 2023 Grand Prix Final in Beijing in early December.

In January, they abruptly withdrew from the 2024 Canadian national championships five days after the publication of USA TODAY Sports’ story because, Sørensen said, their “participation would be distracting.” But they did not withdraw from this week’s world championships, also in Canada, and repeated attempts to reach him for comment about that decision went unanswered. 

According to the report, the woman said she remained silent for years and never reached out to the police or sports officials because she feared that she would be blamed and that no one would believe her. 

The report said she sought psychological treatment and considered filing a criminal complaint in Connecticut but discovered the statute of limitations for such action had expired. 

Then, on July 22, 2023, according to the report, she opened an online article that included an interview with Sørensen in which he commented about the importance of keeping women safe in ice dancing. 

“I couldn't believe the words coming out of the rapist's mouth,” the report quotes the woman as saying. “It hit me at that moment that mothers would likely be sending their daughters to train with him (as a coach) at some point after he retired from competitive skating, and I could not live with the guilt of knowing I never told any authority figures.”

According to the report, the woman filed her report with OSIC that same day. 

While the U.S. Center for SafeSport has been notified of the allegations against Sørensen, it has no jurisdiction over Sørensen at this time because he is not skating for the United States, according to a document obtained by USA TODAY Sports. However, that document reveals that SafeSport has placed Sørensen on “an administrative hold,” meaning that if he were to apply for U.S. Figure Skating membership in the future (a process necessary to coach figure skating in the U.S.), SafeSport would then begin its investigative process.