Suspended American coach could have a skeleton in the closet

The American skeleton team coach Tim Nardiello, upbraided by his sports organisation for dating a New Zealand athlete, will go to court today to challenge a separate sexual harassment allegation.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that accusations involving US athletes had led to two internal investigations and divided the American skeleton team.

"The federation is being forced to defend Nardiello's suspension, which it ordered only after the accusations became public, and the federation president went so far as to move to overturn it at an emergency board meeting," the newspaper reported.

Nardiello, 45, guides the US women's skeleton team and was set to coach the US team - at this point only one woman - at next month's Winter Olympics until complaints were made involving two American athletes not competing at the Olympics, Felicia Canfield and 2002 Olympic champion Tristan Gale.

Nardiello, a father of three who separated from his wife more than two years ago, has also been told by the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (USBSF) that his dating a skeleton athlete from New Zealand was "quite distasteful".

Nardiello is coaching two New Zealand sliders, Kelly Moffat - a Morven schoolteacher with a world ranking of 22 and now in her third season of competition - and Wanaka-based racer Louise Corcoran, in her sixth season.

The pair were coached by Nardiello for this World Cup season and have been travelling, training and living with the US skeleton team.

Corcoran said in November that she was looking for her best season, being "on the best equipment and [having] the best coach" in her mentor, Nardiello.

Both Corcoran and Moffat were included in a new FIBT (International Bobsleigh Federation) team of top small-nation athletes who were not financially supported by their national federations, and were instead provided with coaching and technical support by the FIBT.

For the winter Olympics starting in Turin, Italy, on February 10, the New Zealand women's team is Corcoran, Moffat and Tionette Stoddart. They will race down the bobsleigh track head first, their chin and toes only millimetres from the ice at speeds of up to 130km/h.

But this week's court hearing will determine whether Nardiello will be with the US team at Turin.

The federation suspended Nardiello with pay until its investigation of accusations by Canfield and Marsha Gale, the mother of Tristan Gale, was complete.

- NZPA