Skating coach Anna Levandi handed warning after committee investigation

The Estonian Skating Federation has decided to only issue a warning to coach Anna Levand after a committee heard evidence from several complainants, witnesses, experts and Levandi herself in relation to allegations of mental and physical abuse.
The skating federation said that both athletes and their parents are now more demanding than before about the sport as a process, and this has placed new demands on coaches. The federation's commission recommends that all coaches avoid emotional and sometimes overly critical language in order to avoid conflict situations with children and their parents and to maintain understanding.
"The federation wants to be supportive to young athletes, their parents and coaches. To this end, we are planning to organize a number of training sessions and we will certainly also be asking the coaches what kind of training they still need in the field. We also encourage parents to take part in training sessions on emotions, psychology and the mental side of sport, as the training process has to consider the individual abilities, preparedness and general well-being of the child," said Maire Arm, president of the Estonian Skating Union, who chaired the committee.
The allegations of physical violence were not confirmed by the commission's work. The boundaries between mental abuse and the interpretation of conflict situations that occur from time to time in any partnership are highly individual. However, one such verbal conflict that became heated was confirmed. For her part, Anna Levandi has acknowledged this, regrets it and has apologized.
"As a result of many conversations, the commission has come to the conclusion that the criticism and strong language used by Anna Levandi were motivated by her desire to make athletes training under the elite program, work harder. The commission did not find any malice in Levandi's coaching or her actions," added Marie Arm.
All of the criticisms raised were connected to the extremely intense and demanding process of preparing top-level athletes. The commission's investigation found that many of the allegations, which had been presented as serious, were exaggerated and that major inconsistencies emerged. Some allegations were also dropped as they were not confirmed by the people involved. The commission also noted that there are no recordings available of the situations to which the allegations relate, even though the training sessions took place in groups and were open for parents to attend.
"We treated the complaints against the coach with the utmost attention and verified the complaints and the information we received as much as we were able to. During the course of the committee's work, we received no new complaints. We contacted all the people we knew who had made a complaint or whom we identified [as being involved] in the situations described to hear their accounts. We also listened to the statements of witnesses and Anna Levandi to get as full a picture as possible. We additionally spoke to various experts. In total, the commission interviewed ten people, and examined incidents from as much as 17 years ago, for which, understandably, it is not possible to adopt a firm position. We understand that there may have been an expectation that the for the commission to have found evidence, either clearly confirming or refuting the allegations in each instance, however, unfortunately, it has not been that simple. The analysis was complicated by the fact that many of the episodes described were situations in which it was one person's word against another's. In addition, some people also changed their accounts," said Marie Arm.
On January 16, 2024, the Estonian Skating Federation received a report from the Estonian Anti-Doping and Sports Ethics Foundation regarding complaints against figure skating coach Anna Levandi.
On January 31, the federation's board decided to form a committee in order to deal with the complaints. The board consisted of Maire Arm, Vadim Belobrovtsev, Jana Kuura and Ere Lusti.
On February 21, ERR reported that several athletes previously coached by Anna Levandi had accused here of mental and physical abuse against them.
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Editor: Maarja Värv, Michael Cole