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Track World Cup #1 & 2 in Calgary and Montreal Todd As you know, I have previously voiced my concerns about some team dynamic issues affecting the World Cup Team. Some of these issues are very disturbing in my eyes and need to be addressed before more damage is done. I was brought on the trip as a bi-partisan individual to observe, work with the team and help in any way possible to bring the skaters back together as a team. Immediately after meeting the group I could see the division between skaters. Not knowing any of the skaters, or what sides they were on, it took me about 3 days to learn who stood where and how strong their feelings were. I purposely tried not to see the separate sides or to acknowledge that there were differences. My first interaction with everyone was warm and I felt accepted by each skater and staff. Into the second day on the trip I started to notice that my presence was being undermined and a few of the skaters started treating me different and avoiding me altogether. This was mostly; stopping a conversation when I walked by, avoiding me in the hotel, changing a conversation when they noticed that I was near, a change in a facial expression or a looking down and avoiding eye contact. It was early in the second day when I was told by one of the coaches on the ice (Paul Marchese) that Anthony Barthell had approached him and told Paul that skaters are complaining to him, that the ice practice that I ran, was run very poorly and they wanted Anthony to run the practice. I did not think too much of this since I had a slight difficulty understanding some of the abbreviations that Steve had written for the workout. After I was told what the abbreviations meant, everything ran smooth. Later 2 skaters Jessica and Lana approached me in the hotel and told me that Anthony also approached them at the ice practice and told them that he didn't like how the ice practice was run and they should tell me that Anthony should run the ice practices. This upset the girls. These 2 skaters came to me and told me that they felt that the ice practice was just fine and in no uncertain terms did not want Anthony running the practices. Later that night Anthony came and talked to me privately and told me that Jessica and Lana came to him complaining how they didn't like how practice was run and that he should run the practice. I told Anthony that these 2 girls had earlier told me just the opposite. This made him very mad and he left the room. I was quite shocked at this point and felt that I had just been told an outright lie. Early on the 3rd day a few skaters mentioned to one of the staff members that they had heard from friends in Salt Lake that Anthony was having sexual relations with _______. This was brought to my attention immediately. I was not sure how to react; I have never been in a situation like this before. I felt that the best thing to do would be to observe the situation before confronting Anthony. I had figured that it was just kids making things up.

Upon observation I was surprised to see some very inappropriate conduct. I had personally witnessed; standing/sitting very close together, spending a lot of time together, hand holding, touching her thigh and piggyback rides, I had also received pictures from others with these things going on and comments about their closeness. I was very uncomfortable with this situation and contacted Mark Greenwald and Bryce Holbech about it. At this point it was discussed that we really needed more proof to accuse someone of having a relationship with a skater. I thought about approaching Anthony directly about this but with the lie he told me earlier, I did not have faith that he would be honest in a confrontation. Having a sexual relationship or not, these actions that I witnessed with a skater, in my mind were gravely inappropriate and strongly against the code of conduct. To this day, even after we talked about this with Bryce and Steve Gough in a closed door meeting with Anthony, he does not deny the actions stated above and he refuses to accept that these actions are inappropriate. We as a staff recognized early in the trip that Anthony is new in this role and may not be aware of his responsibilities so we called a staff meeting to discuss each persons role; acquired a responsibility sheet that was used on past trips (attached); During this meeting Anthony stated he felt it was his role to be there for everybody; when we were discussing the aforementioned role sheet, Anthony spent most of his time texting on his phone not paying attention to our discussion Later on the 3rd day in Calgary, Anthony approached both Nicole and myself separately and told us he had met with Jessica and Lana and had fixed things; the girls later told me that they had asked him for a meeting to tell him they wanted nothing to do with him, that he should not coach or speak to them. At ice practice on Thursday, the day before the competition started. Anthony, Paul and I sat down at the rink 20 minutes before practice and went over the planned practice for that day. We lightened the practice load slightly to meet Anthonys requests, so that everyone was doing the same thing like we did all week. This went well, we all agreed. In the middle of practice Anthony decided, without telling anyone else, that his skaters are not going to do the tempos and half of the sprints. This threw the entire practice in a tailspin. All the NRP skaters threw a fit and some of the FAST skaters were not happy. The skaters started yelling back and forth at each other and it completely undermined the entire practice and rest of the day the entire group was at war again. Steve Gough arrived late Thursday and things were quiet for a day. On the Saturday after the races, Anthony and the skaters from the FAST program went out to dinner together, when they came back to the hotel the entire group went into one of the skaters room and locked the door. This really upset a few of the NRP skaters that were hanging around. They keep asking, why do we have to keep working at being a team when these guys (FAST team skaters) keep having these private dinners and meetings and not even inviting anyone else. This was a continuing headache

for the staff to answer the entire trip. This issue had been discussed with Anthony and Steve Gough and it kept happening. I decided to go knock on the door of the room to see what was going on in there after about 10 min. They opened the door and let me in. They were all in a circle around Anthony discussing something that stopped immediately when I entered the room. The room was silent and no one would say a word or look me in the eye while I was in the room. I stayed a few minuets and talked about the days races and then left. Everyone else in the room left about 40 minutes later. From that day forward most of that group have been very cold and would go out of their way to avoid the rest of the staff and myself. This was very upsetting, a few of those skaters were really starting to open up and break down barriers between the groups before this meeting. Dr. Nicole Detling was approached the next day by a skater that was in that group meeting who was noticeably upset; Nicole was told that this skater was upset by the subject matter discussed at the meeting. This was all that Nicole was able to share based on the urging of the skater to remain anonymous. We did learn that these skaters were told by Anthony to ignore and not listen to myself, Paul M, Nicole and Curtis. I did present this information to Steve Gough. Steve had already been given an entirely different story from Anthony. This negativity from this meeting continued for about 3 days. Steve did have a talk with Anthony about including the rest of the team on these dinners and meetings and to stop referring to the FAST team skaters as his team this term was used often by Anthony and is very upsetting to the rest of the skaters as well as the staff that was continuingly trying to bring the sides together as one World Cup Team. After the competition was over in Calgary, 4 of us (myself, Bryce Anthony, Steve) sat down behind closed doors to discuss all these issues. Bryce started by asking Anthony up front are you having any sexual relations with _____ Anthony denied any relations, but started to go off on me for accusing him of these allegations. He stated that everything witnessed between he and _____ was perfectly fine, they have been that close for years and in no way should be construed as inappropriate actions with a skater. I know what I saw between these two and will state that I was appalled by these actions and if this was seen by media or USOC personnel, USS would be in big trouble. If she were a minor, I would have called the police. Our meeting continued in a heated discussion about the other issues where Anthony has been caught in blatant lies regarding conversations with other skater and things that he told me that skaters said when what was actually said was completely different. He continued to lie his way out of the conversation. I could not figure out what his goal was with all the lies, deceiving actions and continued push to try and divide the team until after we arrived in Montreal and started hearing more stories of Anthonys attempts to try and persuade more NRP skaters into his skating program and more secret meetings with the FAST team skaters. This was happening on a daily basis and the division of the skaters was growing worse. At the end of the meeting Bryce talked to all of us about really making an effort to work with all the

skaters. Not saying my team all the time, but one team, doing activities as a group and to discontinue the private meetings and activities unless everyone was invited. When Steve Gough arrived he was unwillingly/unknowingly caught in the middle of these skater turf battles and lies. Dr. Nicole Detling, Paul Marchese and myself have been working to repair the damage on a daily basis fighting a losing battle. Every Dryland practice Anthony made sure that his skaters did not participate or if they were asked to participate he made sure that they did it a safe distance from the rest of the skaters instead of trying to help by bringing the skaters together. When eating dinner in the cafeteria, he did not sit at the table with the rest of the staff or at a table with the NRP skaters he would only sit with the FAST skaters. The rest of the staff made a conscious effort to continually sit with different skaters at different times. Believe it or not the skaters were very aware of these actions and take it as a personal slap in the face. In our staff meeting in Calgary on Sunday night after the competition one of the staff specifically called Anthony out for having private meetings and only paying attention to his skaters as well as using the my team phrase; the whole staff was in agreement that it should change and Anthony nodded his agreement as well; yet the very next day we get to Montreal he continued the same method of operation. I do not want this to sound like I have a personal vendetta against Anthony. I do not! I have never met him or heard of him before this trip. 1-2 days into the trip I notice that there is lying and deceiving going on but cant understand why anyone would do such a thing with so little to gain. Later I realize that these actions all stem around Anthonys insecurities and personal gain as a coach. Constantly trying to persuade skaters into skating with him, bad mouthing other staff members and coaches to make sure his skaters would never leave his program. My hat goes off to Dr. Nicole Detling, Paul Marchese and Curtis Wildes who spent so much of their time on this trip trying to mend the negative actions of Anthony Barthell. So much time and energy wasted dealing with these issues that could have been used to help mend relationships and bring the sport back together. Clearly Anthony is unable to see the long-term consequences of his actions and how he consistently drives a wedge between the team rather than bringing them together; and even though it was pointed out to him multiple times by different people (Bryce also told me he told him to stop calling them his team and having private meetings), his behavior never changed. The only behavior that did change was his closeness with _____ after he was called out on it. In the beginning, part of me was saying that he just doesn't know any better but time and time again he was caught in the same type of lies and destructive actions. After these concerns had been pointed out to him, he keeps on following the same routine and made sure to turn His Team against anyone in his way.

I fully believe that without Anthonys presence and constant undermining, these skaters would have made great strides in becoming a whole team again and could have returned to Salt Lake ready to train together. It is my opinion that Anthony Barthell is a detriment to US Speedskating and should not be allowed around impressionable athletes. I apologize for throwing this on your lap, I am sure that you have way better things to do with your time. I did not enjoy the hours spent dealing with these situations or preparing this letter. I hope you know me well enough to know that I would not bring this up to you if I did not feel that this was a very disturbing issue. Please feel free to contact Paul Marchese, Dr. Nicole Detling, Curtis Wilde or myself at any time if you have questions about this information. Sincerely Patrick Wentland