American sprint coach Rana Reider has been ejected from the Olympics after reports surfaced over the weekend that he was being accused of sexual and emotional abuse by three female athletes in a lawsuit filed in Florida.
He had been coaching sprinters Marcell Jacobs (Italy) and Andre De Grasse (Canada) at the Olympics in Paris.
Reider had been accredited by the Canadian Olympic Committee and his lawyer, Ryan Stevens, was told on Monday that the COC would be sending an official letter to withdraw his accreditation, The Guardian reported.
The development comes a day after The Times published a report on the Florida lawsuit against the 54-year-old coach, which resulted in USA Track & Field only sharing the info with the Canadians on Sunday upon learning he was accredited for the Olympics.
The suit was filed against Reider in Broward County by three women with two of the three plaintiffs being named, according to the report.
One claims that she suffered sexual and emotional abuse and harassment by Reider and the other named accusers said that they were the victim of sexual and verbal harassment by the coach.
In comments to The Guardian, Stevens said that Reider was “unjustly stripped of his Olympic coaching credential, based on years‑old claims in a lawsuit by former athletes seeking financial gain.”
USA Track & Field, Reider’s Tumbleweed Track Club, Puma, Adidas and Reider’s company have all been named as defendants in the suit as well.
Canada had already been receiving some scrutiny days earlier from World Athletics, which had questioned the decision to accredit Reider after he was sanctioned by US Safesport with a 12-month probation for a relationship with one of his athletes that “presented a power imbalance,” according to The Guardian.
The Times also reported that the USATF had issued an indefinite safety plan following the new allegations, which prohibited Reider from coaching any athletes one-on-one and he is required to be accompanied by a chaperone.
Reider was denied accreditation to the World Athletics Championships in 2022 and 2023 and in 2022 he was cautioned by police after gaining unauthorized access to an athlete warmup area.
Steven’s statement to the Guardian also said there were no current sanctions against Reider from U.S. Center for SafeSport, USA Track & Field or Athletics Canada.
“The ones who are being hurt in all of this are the athletes suddenly forced to compete without their chosen coach, including one of Canada’s finest sprinters,” Stevens added.
