Canadian figure skater Nikolaj Soerensen has been suspended for at least six years for “sexual maltreatment,” the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner announced Wednesday.
The suspension was listed on the office’s Abuse-Free Sport registry and is subject to challenge or appeal.
The ban is a result of an OSIC investigation into an allegation that Soerensen sexually assaulted an American figure skating coach and former skater in Hartford, Conn., in 2012.
Soerensen has denied the allegation, which has not been tested in court.
Skate Canada, the country’s governing body of figure skating, said in a statement it “has been made aware of the decision from Abuse-Free Sport in this matter and is taking the necessary action to comply with it.”
“The ban will be issued by Skate Canada,” the statement reads.
Soerensen and skating partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry were active last season despite the allegation and investigation.
In March, they competed at the world figure skating championships in Montreal.
Two months earlier, they withdrew from the national championship in Calgary after USA Today reported in January that an American figure skating coach and former skater accused Soerensen of sexually assaulting her in Hartford, Conn., in 2012. Soerensen was 23 at the time.
Soerensen and Fournier Beaudry captured a silver medal later that month at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships in Shanghai.
The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner opened in June 2022 to handle complaints and investigations for national-level athletes in sporting organizations that sign on to the program. Former sports minister Pascale St-Onge established it to be an independent body for abuse complaints following Hockey Canada’s scandal that year.
Since August 2023, the office has announced eight suspensions, including Soerensen. The 35-year-old Soerensen is the sixth among those to include sexual maltreatment.
Tyler Myles is the only other from Skate Canada to have been suspended, with the coach currently ruled to have permanent ineligibility for “Boundary Transgressions, Interference with or Manipulation of Process, Physical Maltreatment, Sexual Maltreatment.”
However, the decision is “under challenge based on applicability of the UCCMS [Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport].”
