Singapore’s national sports agency said Friday it was “dismayed” to learn of a figure skater’s claims that she suffered physical and mental abuse while training in China.
Jessica Shuran Yu, who was born and trained in China but competed internationally for Singapore, said her coach hit her, drew blood from her shin with skate blades, and hurled insults at her and fellow athletes.
She said in an Instagram post that there was a “toxicity that plagues aesthetic sports like gymnastics and figure-skating.”
Sport Singapore said it was “dismayed to learn of Jessica’s plight in her sporting journey overseas” and was supporting Yu alongside representatives from the Singapore Ice Skating Association.
Yu, 19, competed in the 2017 world championships but has now retired from competitive skating.
Her allegations of mistreatment are the latest to rock the world of sports in recent weeks.
Former Australian gymnasts have gone public with accounts of physical, mental and emotional abuse, while a Human Rights Watch report this week detailed “rampant” mistreatment of young athletes in Japan.
The case of a young South Korean triathlete Choi Suk-hyeon, who took her own life last month, captured global headlines after it emerged she had endured years of physical and verbal abuse from coaching staff that was allegedly ignored by sporting authorities.
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