Joanne Reid faced sexual harassment and abuse for many years. Only a teammate’s announcement to his army superiors made the union work.
United States biathlon champion Joanne Reid had to face sexual harassment and abuse for several years in his team. The troublemaker was the team’s Czech ski supervisor Petr Garabik.
When Reid, 31, first complained in 2019 to the United States Biathlon Union, she was told that Garabik’s behavior was just a European male culture.
Only when Reid’s teammate Deedra Irwinwho is part of the US National Guard, had enough of the constant culture of harassment and reported it to his military superiors, the matter now moved on.
New women were warned
The United States Biathlon Union reported the incident to the US Center for SafeSport, an organization that oversees the safety of young athletes in particular. After a two-year investigation, the organization found that Garabik was guilty of both sexual comments and touching over the course of six years.
– The whole team knew about Garabik’s behavior, but the team officials treated it as if it was normal or “European”. The new women on the team were warned about her, Reid told the news agency AP.
Reid himself tried not to care at first, because as a new team member he didn’t want to cause Garabik, known as a good guardian, to leave the team.
“Complete nonsense”
According to Reid, the sexual harassment that started in 2016 included constant touching, hugging, dirty jokes and patting on the backside. Reid was in his twenties at the time and Garabik was approaching fifty.
In March 2017, Garabik managed to get drunk into Reid’s hotel room and tried to forcefully kiss her. However, Reid’s roommate arrived and prevented this.
Reid got a new maintenance man for himself in 2019 after complaining about Garabik’s behavior, but it didn’t help.
Reid and Irwin told the AP that they had complained to the union’s athletic director To Lowell Bailey from Garabiki, but he had replied that the rules of sexual harassment cannot be taught to a European. Bailey denied this to the AP, saying the duo had misrepresented him.
The association removed Garabik from national team activities in November 2021. Garabik told AP by email that the investigation against him was “complete nonsense from the beginning”. However, he admitted to investigators and the AP that his comments were sexual in nature.