American sprint coach thrown out of Olympics amid sexual and emotional abuse claims

The American sprint coach to the defending Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse has been ejected from Paris 2024 over a sexual and emotional abuse lawsuit.

Rana Reider, who also trains former 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, is understood to have had his access to the Games withdrawn by Canada. The 54-year-old was absent at the Stade de France on Tuesday as De Grasse eased through his opening heat, qualifying in second place.

The elite coach had previously been sanctioned safeguarding by US Safesport over an alleged relationship that “presented a power imbalance” with one of his athletes. Reider, who also coached British athletes Adam Gemili and Daryll Neita before they left him, underwent a period of probation, although his lawyer said that Reider “was not found in violation of any other sexual misconduct claims” made against him at the time.

In 2022, Reider was denied accreditation to the World Championships in Eugene amid multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him. He was unable to gain accreditation through both the United States team and one other national team. However, he was found within the grounds before an evening session, and police intervened.

A World Athletics spokesperson said at the time: “Event security discovered an unaccredited person in the athlete warm-up area. He was asked to leave, and he refused.

“Police were immediately notified and went to remove him from the venue. When he observed police officers approaching him, he left the venue.

In recent weeks, three women have filed a new action at a Florida court accusing Reider.

Telegraph Sport has seen evidence of the court papers, first reported by The Times newspaper. The full contents of the sexual and emotional abuse allegations are unknown, but USA Track and Field are understood to have flagged the case to Canadian counterparts who in turn informed Reider that his access to the Games is being withdrawn. Reader’s lawyer has been contacted for comment.

Organisers have already been under pressure from sex abuse campaigners. Australian child sex offender Brett Sutton was photographed at the women’s triathlon with Switzerland’s Julie Derron while wearing an Olympic lanyard over his China tracksuit top.

Sutton pleaded guilty in 1999 to five counts of sexual abuse of a 13-year-old Australian girl who he had been coaching in the 1980s, receiving a suspended two-year prison sentence.

But the biggest abuse outrage of the games has been Dutch volleyball player Steven van de Velde, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 after raping a 12-year-old British girl. Van de Velde had travelled from the Netherlands to the UK in August 2014, when he was 19, to meet his victim.

In almost all cases, accreditation and qualification is the responsibility of the national federation.

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