The United States Centre for SafeSport has opened an investigation into an allegation of sexual abuse by French Olympic pairs skater Morgan Ciprès — skating partner of Bermudian Vanessa James.

According to e-mails from the family of a 13-year-old American female figure skater that were obtained by USA Today, Ciprès, allegedly direct-messaged two photographs of his genitalia on Instagram to the girl, who practised at a rink in Wesley Chapel, Florida, where he was training in 2017.

Figure skating coach Vinny Dispenza allegedly told the victim and another underage girl to request the images from Ciprès in exchange for the promise of a pizza.

It is also alleged that Ciprès’ coaches, John Zimmerman, a 2002 Olympian and member of the US Figure Skating Hall of Fame, and Silvia Fontana, a 2002 and 2006 Olympian representing Italy, intervened in an attempt to prevent the girl’s family from coming forward, as Ciprès, who then was 26, prepared for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The three coaches allegedly engaged in a cover-up in 2018, as Ciprès and James were in the final stages of their preparation for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where they finished fifth.

Zimmerman, Fontana and Dispenza issued a joint statement to USA Today on December 10 last year: “We are completely shocked by the recent allegations made in this article. We were not contacted by SafeSport and there are currently no claims against us.

“We hold ourselves to the highest standards of safety and professionalism. We deny the allegations and look forward to clearing up this matter which we take very seriously.”

Meanwhile, Didier Gailhaguet, the former longtime president of the French Federation of Ice Sports, who dismissed the allegation of sexual abuse against Ciprès in December, said on February 5 at a news conference in Paris that Ciprès “did something very stupid”.

He added: “The stupid thing is a photo of himself and his private parts. He made a major mistake ... a shameful act of stupidity.”

Gailhaguet was asked to resign by France’s sports minister over the federation’s handling of a separate sexual abuse allegations against a coach. He later resigned on February 8.

Ciprès, 28, and James have won six French national titles, bronze at the 2018 world championships, the 2018 Grand Prix Final and the 2019 European Championship.

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