Raimo Reinsalu will not accompany Meda Variakojyte at Olympics
Content Warning: violence, physical and emotional abuse
On Thursday, February 12th, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ad-hoc tribunal upheld the ISU’s provisional suspension of coach Raimo Reinsalu.
Reinsalu is under investigation by both the ISU and the Latvian police for alleged emotional and physical abuse of skaters. On Saturday, Feb 7th, the Lithuanian Olympic Committee (LTOK) revoked the accreditation for the Milano Cortina Olympics. The following day, February 8th, the International Skating Union (ISU) confirmed to AnythingGOEs that [the] ISU Disciplinary Commission had imposed a provisional suspension, and that the decision had been appealed.
Reinsalu had been slated to coach Lithuanian skater Meda Variakojyte at the Milano Olympics. LTOK shared that Variakojyte will be accompanied at the boards by sports director of the Lithuanian Skating Federation, Lilija Vanagienė.
On February 9th, Reinsalu filed an appeal to CAS, arguing, according to CAS’ summary, “that the exclusion from the 2026 OWG causes irreparable harm to his professional reputation and adversely affects the athlete he coaches. Mr Reinsalu requested that the CAS Ad hoc Division immediately lift the provisional suspension imposed by the ISU Disciplinary Commission.”
The decision released yesterday, “recalls that a provisional suspension is a precautionary and protective measure, and not a disciplinary sanction. Its function is not to imply any presumption of guilt, but to safeguard the integrity of the sport. In light of the seriousness of the allegations, the CAS Panel considered that the ISU Disciplinary Commission was entitled to conclude that maintaining the coach in functions pending a final decision could pose risks incompatible with the preventative and protective objectives of the ISU Code of Ethics. Consequently, the application was dismissed.”
The ISU released a statement welcoming the decision.
Reinsalu also sent a written statement about the decision to Latvian media, in which he alleged that the case against him is rooted in “cruel and dirty competition between sports clubs and athletes.” He also made allegations against Sofja Stepcenko, saying, “This is also a story about political views, which ultimately affected the internal mood of the club. Therefore, I am sad that the spirit of our figure skating team is currently being emotionally and psychologically undermined and discredited during the Winter Olympics by my former student, whose family has never hidden their special relationship with Russia.”
AnythingGOEs has interviewed and/or reviewed statements from four current and former athletes (in addition to Stepcenko) who have also alleged that they were abused by Reinsalu.
Unanswered questions about Kovalkova’s role
AnythingGOEs previously reported that Latvian police have opened an investigation into coaches Raimo Reinsalu and Olga Kovalkova for allegations of emotional, and in Reinsalu’s case, physical abuse of minors. In August 2025, the International Skating Union (ISU) confirmed to AnythingGOEs that it was also investigating the allegations against the coaching team.
According to a report in the Lithuanian publication Delfi, the LTOK learned about these investigations shortly before the Olympics. LTOK then consulted with Variakojyte, her father, the Latvian Olympic Committee, and with the ISU. While Variakojyte and her father had no complaints against Reinsalu, the ISU, on Saturday, February 7th, recommended that he be suspended from the Olympics, and that recommendation was immediately implemented.
Reinsalu and Kovalkova also coach Fedirs Kuliss of Latvia, who placed 28th in the Men’s Short Program on Tuesday, and did not advance to the Free Skate.
The Latvian Olympic Committee gave a written statement to AnythingGOEs on Wednesday morning:
“The Latvian Olympic Committee is aware of the decision taken by the Lithuanian Olympic Committee regarding the suspension of Mr Reinsalu. At this stage, we note that law enforcement authorities have become involved, and, as we understand, two separate proceedings have been initiated – one against specific individuals and another in the opposite direction. Given this situation, it is important to follow the findings and decisions of the competent law enforcement authorities. Until the circumstances are fully clarified and official conclusions are reached, the LOK will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
It is unclear what the second proceedings referred to are. Reinsalu and Kovalkova have made claims to the media that they intend report Stepcenko and coach Karine Magone to the police for defamation. Magone, however, says that she is not aware of any law enforcement proceedings filed against her or Stepcenko at this point.
The statement continued: “Raimo Reinsalu was not initially included in the Latvian Olympic delegation, and his inclusion is not planned. Therefore, Raimo Reinsalu’s involvement in the Latvian delegation, including any kind of assistance to athlete Fedirs Kuliss, is not envisaged.”
While Reinsalu was not listed as a coach for Kuliss, he was included in the delegation as additional personnel, with access to the Olympic Village and a set of official gear. However, the LOC clarified to AnythingGOEs that Reinsalu in fact never received any official accreditation from Latvia, and does not have access to the Olympic Village.
Kovalkova has not received any sanction from the Latvian Olympic Committee or the Latvian Skating Association (where she is also a member of the board), and the ISU declined to comment on whether she is a subject of its investigation.
According to the LOC, “Olga Kovalkova is accredited as Team Latvia coach for figure skating. Kovaļkova is Fedirs Kuliss’s coach; therefore, there are no reasonable doubts about the necessity of her support for this athlete. We have not received any complaints from F. Kuliss regarding his cooperation with this coach. She is not working with any other athletes at these Olympic Games.”
Interestingly, while Kovalkova is not working with any other Latvian athlete, she has been at the boards with Variakojyte during official Olympic practices.
Context of Allegations
In May 2024, Latvian champion Sofja Stepcenko first told officials of the Latvian Skating Association (LSA) about the alleged abuse she experienced during the years she trained with Reinsalu and Kovalkova. In May 2025, she made a formal report to the LSA, and the LSA forwarded the information to the local police.
In July 2025, Stepcenko decided to speak to AnythingGOEs about her allegations. She explained she was frustrated with the lack of action from authorities and concerned about conflicts of interest within the LSA, where Kovalkova is a member of the board.
Stepcenko told AnythingGOEs that she had been diagnosed with Complex-PTSD connected to the pattern of trauma and abuse she had experienced while training with Kovalkova and Reinsalu. “During [the 2024/2025 season],” said Stepcenko, “I didn’t say anything bad about my former coaches. But now it’s time to say the truth. I basically ran away from my former coaches because they were manipulative… because I was abused [and] they told a lot of gossip and lots of lies about me. They pushed me to do impossible things with injuries…they can promise to get you results, but at what cost? It’s not worth your life.”
She alleges that over the years of training with Kovalkova and Reinsalu, she was frequently told to skate through injuries and that injuries were her fault. “I also had a very long-lasting injury since 2021. When I was 14, my left hip started to hurt. I was practicing so much and I told [Reinsalu] I have a pain. He told me to go to the physiotherapist. I went, it didn’t help, and he told me, ‘Why are you lying about this pain, it’s not so much.’”
“The practices were so horrible, so hard. In one of the ice sessions, I felt so dizzy, I saw black, and I was unable to see. And I needed to jump. And I jumped, and I twisted my ankle. Only after three months, I did the MRI, and they found a stress fracture in the hip. I had three months of having this stress fracture and skating. And of course, you should take a break before going back on the ice, like maybe a few months. After one month, I started to jump and I started to have the pain again, and they didn’t believe me. They were telling me, ‘You don’t have the pain. The pain is in your brain.’ Really the main slogan was, ‘the pain is in your brain.’ And you start to believe in that.”
“From August until December [2021], I was really thinking I was crazy. My first two junior Grand Prix events, I was competing with a stress fracture, and then in December, I decided to go to the doctor, and they told me, ‘You have a stress fracture with necrosis inside of your bone, and half of your hamstrings are broken. If you want to be disabled, you can continue to skate. But if you don’t want that, please stop.’ And my coach told me, ‘It was because you had one and a half kilos of extra weight.’”
Several other former students of Kovalkova and Reinsalu have also raised similar allegations, including claims that Reinsalu used physical violence during training, such as grabbing skaters around the neck and hitting athletes with hard plastic skate guards when they made a mistake.
Kovalkova and Reinsalu have denied any wrongdoing.
A request for further information from Stepcenko was issued in September 2025 by the Administrative Violations Investigation Department of the Riga Regional Office Public Order Police Bureau of the State Police. Stepcenko responded in October with detailed documentation, including the names of other athletes that she said could support parts of her testimony, recordings of conversations with Reinsalu and Kovalkova, and copies of text messages.
By December, Stepcenko had received confirmation that the police had opened an investigation, which is ongoing.
Read Part One: “Its Not Worth Your Life”: Latvian Skaters Speak Out About Abuse
Read Part Two: New Allegations Emerge as Latvian Club Defends Coaches Accused of Abuse
Read Part Three: Skaters Criticise Latvian Federation’s Late and Inconsistent Funding
Read Part Four: Latvian Police Investigating Abuse by Coaches
Read Part Five: ISU, Lithuanian Olympic Committee suspend coach accused of abuse
