© Reuters. U.S. Winter Olympic bobsledder Aja Evans poses for images carrying Polo Ralph Lauren gadgets designed for U.S. Winter Olympic Staff on the firm’s retailer in New York Metropolis, New York, U.S., January 20, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photograph
By Frank Pingue
(Reuters) – Aja Evans, a 2014 Olympic bobsled bronze medalist, has filed a lawsuit alleging that a physician who labored on Staff USA’s medical workers subjected her to almost a decade of sexual abuse and harassment throughout therapy.
The physician, Jonathan Wilhelm, in addition to america Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation had been named as defendants within the lawsuit filed on Wednesday in a state court docket in upstate New York.
Evans, 35, mentioned in a information launch on Thursday that Wilhelm’s “repeated molestation and sexual assault” left her “bodily and emotionally broken, to the purpose the place I expertise power anxiousness and fell out of affection with the game of bobsledding.”
The lawsuit mentioned Wilhelm’s therapy “mirrors the abuse perpetuated” by Larry Nassar, the previous USA Gymnastics workforce physician serving a possible 175-year jail sentence following his 2018 conviction for sexually abusing feminine gymnasts.
Ryan Stevens, a lawyer for Wilhelm, mentioned his consumer “wholeheartedly denies the detestable claims towards him,” and known as evaluating Wilhelm to Nassar “disgraceful and defamatory.”
The USOPC mentioned it had not reviewed the grievance, however “stays dedicated to making sure the protection and wellbeing of Staff USA athletes,” together with by eliminating abuse.
USA Bobsled didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Evans’ lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for extra remark.
The lawsuit mentioned Wilhelm started treating Evans in 2012, and that through the therapy he “touched and groped Ms. Evans’ genitals and physique in contravention of any relevant medical requirements.”
Evans mentioned it was well-known amongst athletes that Wilhelm would, no matter their accidents, discover a purpose to “go for the adductor,” a gaggle of muscle mass positioned on the inside thighs.
She additionally alleges that Wilhelm had been reported for videotaping and photographing Evans and others in varied states of undress throughout therapy classes and previous to competitors on the USOPC coaching facility in Lake Placid, New York.
“Slightly than being protected, believed, and brought severely, Ms. Evans was subjected to investigation and degradation by the USOPC and USA Bobsled governing our bodies,” the lawsuit mentioned.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for ache and struggling, medical damages and different hurt, plus punitive damages.
Evans received a bronze medal within the two-woman bobsled on the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
In November 2022, Evans obtained a two-year ban from bobsledding for not submitting a pattern throughout an out-of-competition drug take a look at the earlier March.
