In this 2009 photo provided by Karen Gorman, biathlete Grace Boutot, left, of Fort Kent displays her silver medal from the Youth Women Biathlon World Championships while standing with coach Gary Colliander. Boutot has accused Collander and another coach of sexual abuse when she was a teenager. Karen Gorman via AP

A half-dozen former female Olympians and other biathletes, including Fort Kent native Grace Boutot, have claimed that sexual abuse and harassment by coaches and others holding positions of power over women on the U.S. Biathlon team were dismissed, ignored or excused over decades.

The officials, they said, were more concerned with winning medals than holding offenders accountable.

While their abusers climbed the sport’s ranks, the women told The Associated Press they were forced to end racing careers early.

“My safety on the team was clearly secondary,” said Joan Wilder, 58, a two-time Olympian who claimed her coach got away with trying to sexually assault her in 1990 despite her complaints to Max Cobb, at the time a U.S. Biathlon official.

Cobb, who the women say failed to address several claims, went from U.S. domestic team manager to U.S. Biathlon Association CEO, and is now secretary general of the International Biathlon Union, the worldwide governing body of the sport, which combines cross-country skiing with target shooting.

The women came forward after the AP reported that Olympian Joanne Reid was sexually abused and harassed for years, according to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which was created by Congress in 2017 to investigate sex-abuse allegations in Olympic sports in the aftermath of the Larry Nassar gymnastics scandal. Nassar, the former team doctor, is serving a de facto life sentence without parole for 10 counts of sexual assault, possessing child pornography and tampering with evidence.

The AP generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse except when they publicly identify themselves or share their stories openly, as these women have.

Cobb denied allegations of failing to act. “During my 33 years at U.S. Biathlon, athlete safety was always fundamental to me, and I can’t recall ever hearing from athletes or others that my efforts in this regard were not appropriate,” he said via email.

Cobb declined to be interviewed, saying it would violate SafeSport’s code. But an investigation ordered by U.S. Biathlon into team culture and safety following the AP report found biathletes faced “misogynistic” behavior while racing and feared retaliation for coming forward.

In response, biathlon officials said they were adopting an “action plan.”

LONG HISTORY OF COMPLAINTS

Biathlon is the only winter sport with no U.S. Olympic medals. Desperate to excel, U.S. officials hired European coaches and staff, and turned a blind eye when women raised claims, those interviewed said.

In 1990, to prepare for the first women’s Olympic biathlon race, U.S. officials hired German biathlete Walter Pichler to coach.

During training camp that year, Wilder, then 20, said she went to bed early on a night the team went out and woke to someone on her back. It was Pichler trying to force her to have sex, she said in a complaint to SafeSport.

Pichler denied it. “This is unbelievable,” he told the AP. “I always had a super relationship with Joanie, or with all the athletes, all the female, the men athletes.”

Wilder said she reported it to Cobb, at the time the team manager. He “didn’t consider it discipline-worthy,” she said.

Wilder said in her SafeSport complaint that she then faced retaliation. She was temporarily bumped from the 1994 Olympic team, then dropped from the national team before the 1998 Olympics without being told – putting her health insurance at risk.

She called Cobb.

“Max ended the conversation with, ‘Well, if you write a letter to the U.S. Olympic Committee and say that you’re resigning from biathlon, I’ll extend your medical insurance,’ ” she told the AP.

She said she decided she didn’t have any fight remaining, and left the sport.

MAINE BIATHLETE CITES ABUSE

Grace Boutot grew up in Fort Kent, near the Maine Winter Sports Center’s Nordic ski facility that was used by U.S. Biathlon.

In 2003, Boutot, then 12, was recruited into the program. She started racing in 2004, and at 15 began training with new coach Gary Colliander.

Colliander gave her much coaching attention and hugs that increased over time, she said. He would invite her to his home, massaging her legs, and rubbing her back and buttocks.

After she turned 18, the attention escalated to “kissing, sexual fondling and oral sex,” according to a treatment summary by therapist Jacqueline Pauli-Ritz that was shared with the AP.

Boutot said she begged him to stop but Colliander ignored her. She became severely depressed and started cutting herself, according to Pauli-Ritz’s notes. In September 2010, Pauli-Ritz told Colliander he should stop coaching Boutot, the treatment summary said.

“He did not do this until after the suicide attempt,” Pauli-Ritz wrote, referring to Boutot’s 2010 overdose on antidepressants at training camp.

The next day, Colliander resigned. He took a coaching job in Colorado and was hired in December 2016 by the U.S. Paralympic team.

Colliander didn’t respond to phone messages and emails seeking comment.

In October 2010, Boutot informed the Maine Winter Sports Center about Colliander’s abuse, according to a letter she sent to the center’s board. But, she said, there was no investigation.

Boutot said she also faced abuse by Vladimir Cervenka of the Czech Republic, who had been hired as the U.S. Biathlon junior team coach, starting in 2007.

Boutot said when she won a silver medal at the 2009 Youth World Championships, Cervenka grabbed her.

“He forcibly kissed me and groped my entire body, smothering me and crushing me until he was pulled off of me by our team masseuse,” she said of Cervenka, who was 26 years older.

Cervenka denied Boutot’s claims.

“I absolutely did not kiss her or grope her body,” he told the AP via email.

Boutot twice reported Cervenka’s alleged abuse to U.S. Biathlon officials, including in a January 2011 email to Cobb and a U.S. Biathlon board member. In the email she also expressed concern about Cervenka’s inappropriate contact with other young teammates and her worries of retaliation. In the email exchange she was told the issues were serious, but she had to make her complaint public so Cervenka could defend himself.

Boutot said she expected them to investigate: “I told them of the abuse and they never took me seriously.”

Boutot faced retaliation by the Maine Winter Sports Center, she said in a 2011 complaint to the Maine Human Rights Commission.

The center, which closed this month, settled for $75,000. Boutot quit racing.

ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS

SafeSport has ordered a new investigation into whether Reid was retaliated against for exposing the abuse to the watchdog group. A SafeSport spokeswoman, Hilary Nemchik, said she couldn’t comment on the ongoing case.

SafeSport investigates claims even when the legal statute of limitations has expired.

Wilder said she didn’t know she had that option and has now filed a complaint, naming Cobb and Pichler.

“I sincerely hope that my shared story with other women biathletes results in this being bookends to a darker period,” Wilder said.