DENVER — U.S. Ski & Snowboard said they are investigating an accusation by snowboarder Callan Chythlook-Sifsof against Hagen Kearney that he repeatedly used racial slurs with her when they competed on the same team.
Chythlook-Sifsof, 32, of Girdwood, Alaska, who is Yupik and Inupiaq, competed in snowboardcross at the 2010 Vancouver Games. She described on social media a 2014 incident with Kearney, 30, a two-time Olympian from Telluride, at an Olympic qualifier in Canada.
"I cannot watch another Olympic Games without saying this publicly," she said on Instagram.
In a van ride back to the hotel, she said Kearney remarked that Kanye West gave Black people a bad name, and she told him to keep his mouth shut. She said Kearney chuckled and then remained silent for the remainder of the van ride.
She said after they arrived at the hotel, she was out first and the team members walked single file through a 100-foot hallway.
"Hagen was a few people behind me, cupped his hands to his mouth and yelled the n-word on repeat around 20 times as we walked," Chythlook-Sifsof said on Instagram. "In the lobby I stopped to face him, he approached me smiling.
"I said, 'Hagen if you say that one more time ...' He got 6 inches form my face, fake punched at me and said, 'What? What are you going to do about it?' "
She said he then followed her into an elevator, even though his room was on the opposite side of the building. She said she got out of the elevator and took the stairs.
"This man has made rape jokes about female members of the team and the list goes on," Chythlook-Sifsof said.
She also described an incident with snowboarder Trevor Jacob talking to team coaches about a sexual encounter with a girl, and both coaches laughed.
"I was horrified," she said. "Just another day on the US Snowboard Team."
U.S. Ski and Snowboard said on Friday that the organization "has been made aware of the recent allegations. We take these allegations very seriously and the allegations are being investigated."
The statement also says that the concerns regarding Kearney were dealt with at the time and appropriate action was taken. U.S. Ski and Snowboard did not detail what that action might have been.
Chythlook-Sifsof emerged onto the snowboardcross scene in 2007 when she won the Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Championships and took third in the first World Cup of her career, according to U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
After the 2010 Olympics, she won a silver at the Winter X-Games in 2011 and a spot on the World Cup podium in Switzerland. She returned to the World Cup circuit in 2013 after recovering from a knee injury.
Kearney finished seventh in seeding in men's snowboardcross at the 2022 Winter Olympics but didn't advance to the semifinals, finishing 17th overall in the field. He placed 13th in snowboardcross at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
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