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An International Skating Union panel handed down a year-long suspension to American speedskater Mitch Whitmore on March 29 after the 26-year-old was found guilty of misconduct and violation of ISU Code of Ethics for his role in a fight with a Dutch speedskating coach last December in Germany.
Whitmore, who competed at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, lives and trains in Salt Lake City. According to U.S. Speedskating, Whitmore is expected to appeal the year-long ban to the Court of Arbitration of Sport.
A statement from U.S. Speedskating was released to the Tribune on Saturday: "We are aware of the International Skating Union's decision to Mr. Mitch Whitmore for his involvement in an incident in Inzell, Germany on the night of Dec. 2, 2015. We will support Mr. Whitmore's appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and until that process is complete we will not have any further comment."
In a detailed report by the ISU released on March 29, Dutch coach Stefano Donagrandi was asleep in his Inzell hotel room on the night of Dec. 2, 2015, when he was woken by a loud car in the hotel's parking lot. Donagrandi allegedly asked Whitmore, who was accompanied by some members of the New Zealand team, to keep the noise down.
Donagrandi said after repeated attempts to ask Whitmore to cease screaming in the parking lot, Whitmore jumped on top of him and threw him to the ground.
According to Donagrandi, when he hit the ground, he fell on his right shoulder, which caused his shoulder to become dislocated. Whitmore then allegedly sat on Donagrandi's back and pressed his face into the gravel.
Later in the report, however, accounts from Whitmore and the New Zealand skater differed from that of Donagrandi.
Whitmore's account is that while he and friends were conversing in the parking lot, Donagrandi proceeded to yell unprovoked. After briefly returning inside the hotel, Donagrandi allegedly came back to the parking lot and and started yelling "insulting statements" at the group.
"We yelled back and forth at each other and then he pushed me," Whitmore's description states. "I responded by hitting him which knocked him to the ground. I then followed him to the ground in hopes of calming the situation. I asked him several times, "are we done here?'"
Whitmore said when he returned into the car to avoid escalating the situation, Donagrandi approached the car and began slamming the hood and kicking the door before the driver to the car drove off.
The New Zealand skater said Whitmore's actions were a response "in what looked like self-defense and that resulted in a fight between the two of them."
Donagrandi did not file a motion, but asked that Whitmore's actions be taken seriously and that the ISU take the necessary steps to reprimand the long-track skater from Waukesha, Wis.
The report states that U.S. Speedskating raised the question of how the incident could result in a violation of the ISU's Code of Ethics when the alleged offender, Whitmore, was unaware of Donagrandi's affiliation to the sport and made the case that Whitmore was acting in self-defense outside the field of play.
"Even if the victim had been a person who did not belong to the ISU family, the ISU Code of Ethics would be applicable, because the assault was committed by a member of the U.S. Speedskating team during an ISU event," the panel explained in the report.
Whitmore's suspension began April 1 and will end on March 31, 2017. His decision is to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Last November, Whitmore broke his own American record in the men's 500-meter event at the ISU World Cup stop at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. His silver-medal finish of 34.19 bettered his time of 34.29 two years prior on the same track.
"To break any record, it feels really good," Whitmore said afterward. "It's cool to know you have the fastest ever time for an American, and for it to be done at home makes it even better."
Twitter: @chriskamrani