Nearly six years after she filed suit, a former Team USA speed skater’s claims of negligence against the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and U.S. Speedskating can proceed toward trial, a federal judge ruled, rejecting the organizations’ attempts to have the case dismissed.
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Bridie Farrell sued the organizations in 2020, alleging they failed to protect her from sexual abuse by former Olympic speed skater Andy Gabel. After years of discovery and attempts by the organizations to see the case dismissed, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. found that factual questions remain about what the organizations knew, what responsibility they had for Farrell’s safety and whether their failures contributed to her injuries.
Farrell alleges that Gabel, a four-time Olympian, abused her over a seven-month period beginning in 1997, when she was 15 and he was a 33-year-old teammate and mentor. Her lawsuit contends that officials within the sport had received earlier warnings about Gabel’s conduct with young female skaters but continued to allow him access to minors.
Gabel has denied abusing Farrell. He has acknowledged kissing and touching her and described their contact as a “brief, inappropriate relationship,” but he has denied having a sexual relationship with her. A U.S. Speedskating investigation later found that he had engaged in sexual activity with Farrell while she was a minor, according to testimony from the organization’s former chief executive.
The USOPC did not respond to a request for comment. Ted Morris, chief executive of U.S. Speedskating, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Scullin dismissed Farrell’s separate claims for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress against the USOPC and U.S. Speedskating. He also dismissed all claims against the Saratoga Winter Club, the club she and Gabel skated for, finding that Farrell had not produced evidence that the alleged abuse occurred on club property or while she was in its custody or control.
“It is abundantly clear from the Court’s review of the record that there are many genuine issues of material fact” regarding the responsibility of the USOPC and U.S. Speedskating, Scullin wrote.
Farrell said the ruling brought a measure of relief in a process she called “grueling.”
“I’m really proud to have made it this far,” she said in an interview. “I feel slightly better. I feel heard. When I first read it, I teared up, because it was like: ‘Yes, it’s worth speaking up. Survivors, keep speaking up. Although this is very, very hard, we have to keep doing this.’”
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The judge has set a trial date for next June. Gabel remains a defendant in the lawsuit. He did not seek summary judgment, and the new rulings did not address Farrell’s claims against him.
The ruling clears a legal hurdle that had lingered since August 2023, when the USOPC, U.S. Speedskating and the Saratoga Winter Club asked the judge to end the claims against them without a trial.
Farrell has said she met Gabel in 1994 through the club. Her lawsuit alleges that he began abusing her three years later, initially in his car while transporting her to and from practices. She alleged that other incidents occurred at several locations, including the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center and a hotel during the 1998 U.S. Olympic trials.
Her negligence claims against the USOPC and U.S. Speedskating center in part on whether the organizations had prior notice that Gabel posed a danger to young athletes. Farrell pointed to a 1990 investigation into allegations that Gabel had engaged in a sexual relationship with another 15-year-old speed skater at Northern Michigan University’s Olympic training center.
The USOPC disputed that it knew Gabel posed a threat to minors and argued that it did not employ or directly control him. U.S. Speedskating argued that Gabel was training as a fellow athlete, not serving as Farrell’s coach or acting as an employee or representative of the organization. It said it did not learn about the 1990 investigation until 2014, and contended that neither Farrell nor the other young skaters had told its officials about their relationships with Gabel at the time.
Farrell argued that the USOPC exercised control over the Lake Placid training center, where she alleges at least one incident occurred, and that U.S. Speedskating had sufficient authority over athletes and the sport to intervene.
Scullin did not resolve those competing accounts. Instead, he found that factual disputes remain over whether either organization owed Farrell a duty of care, whether it breached that duty and whether any breach was a substantial cause of her injuries.
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