Richard Callaghan

Richard Callaghan is an American figure skating coach. He is best known as the long-time coach of Todd Eldredge, 6-time U.S. Champion and 1996 World Champion. He also coached Nicole Bobek to her national title, and Tara Lipinski to U.S., World, and Olympic titles.

As a competitive skater, Callaghan was coached by Don Laws. His best finish was 5th at the 1965 U.S. Championships. He turned professional in 1967, touring with Ice Capades and Holiday on Ice before he began to coach in 1972. He worked in Rochester, New York, Philadelphia, Colorado Springs, and San Diego before settling in the Detroit area in 1992.

In March, 1999, Callaghan announced his resignation from his position at the Detroit Skating Club and his intention to retire at the end of that skating season. A few weeks later, The New York Times reported that Callaghan had been accused of sexual misconduct by Craig Maurizi, one of his former students who had continued to work with him for many years as a coaching assistant. Maurizi alleged that Callaghan had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with him beginning when he was 15 years old, more than 20 years previously. The Times article additionally quoted two other former students who also claimed to have been molested by Callaghan. For his part, Callaghan denied the charges and alleged that Maurizi was attempting to destroy his professional reputation as the result of a dispute the previous year that arose when Lipinski fired Callaghan and named Maurizi as her official coach.

Maurizi filed a grievance against Callaghan with the United States Figure Skating Association (USFSA), but the grievance was dismissed without a hearing on the grounds that it had not been filed in a timely manner. Many observers in the skating world felt that the USFSA was attempting to sweep the incident under the rug, but as a consequence of the case and the publicity it caused, the USFSA did adopt a formal policy on sexual harassment and other forms of abuse, and has since taken aggressive action against other coaches accused of sexual misconduct with their students.

Callaghan claimed his planned retirement had nothing to do with the grievance and that he had simply grown tired of the travel and relentless grind of being a top international coach. However, he did not retire after all, but merely moved to another rink in the Detroit area where he has continued to coach Eldredge and other skaters, including Angela Nikodinov, Shizuka Arakawa, and Jennifer Kirk.

References

*Jo-Ann Barnas: "Callaghan resigns from skating club". Detroit Free Press, March 19, 1999.
*Jere Longman: "Top Figure-Skating Coach Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct". The New York Times, April 11, 1999.