MiniSky: Thoughts About Everything

Click here for an updated AP story on Tim’s reinstatement on msnbc.com.

Also, two athletes spoke out about the allegations before Tim was reinstated in the Times-Herald Record, which serves New York’s Hudson Valley and Catskill region:

Accusing coach seen as ‘vindictive’

By Kevin Gleason
Times Herald-Record
kgleason@th-record.com

Vindictive and bitter. Those are the words Washingtonville native Jody Barton uses to describe fellow female skeleton athletes accusing U.S. coach Tim Nardiello of sexual harassment.

“All they did was succeed in destroying the dreams and hopes of the four athletes going to the (Olympic) Games,’’ Barton said. “I think they were vindictive and bitter because they were not going to the Games.’’

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation suspended Nardiello on Dec. 31 after complaints from Felicia Canfield and Tristan Gale. Then an unidentified female slider reportedly filed a complaint against Nardiello as well.

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence on the timing,’’ Barton said. “These aren’t girls - they are women. They are in their 30s and 40s. They know what they are doing. Those three women who brought this situation on, if they had issues with him, they should have said something to him. I don’t really think he did anything wrong to them.’’

Both Barton and slider Marci Short, who grew up in Highland Mills, say they were shocked by the news. Barton met Nardiello in summer 2002 after he started working for the skeleton Federation. “He spent a lot of time helping me,’’ she said. “He welded a lot of parts on my sled this (past) summer.’’

Nardiello was Short’s luge coach in the early 1990s. He would drive her to practice and she considered him a “father figure’’ back then. They have known each other for 17 years. She calls him a good friend.

“It came out of nowhere,’’ Short said. “He was not always a perfect gentleman, but me personally, I never felt harassed or threatened by him.”

Asked if she ever felt uncomfortable around Nardiello, Short said, “No. I never felt threatened. He was like any other friend. Probably both of us said things to each other that were inappropriate.’’

Short was among 12 female sliders interviewed by a U.S. Olympic Committee attorney investigating the case. The lawyer asked if Short had been the victim of sexually inappropriate comments, or witnessed or heard about such comments. She told the attorney she hadn’t received, seen or heard of any such comments.

Short and Nardiello keep in contact through e-mails.

“He’s hanging in there,’’ Short said. “He says he can’t even leave his house because the media’s camped out.’’