FILE - In this June 3, 2020, photo, the Olympic rings float in the water at sunset in the Odaiba section in Tokyo. The Tokyo Olympics are already the most expensive Summer Games on record with costs set to go higher, a wide-ranging study from Britain's University of Oxford indicates. This is even before the costs of the one-year delay from the COVID-19 pandemic are known with the cost overrun already at over 200%, lead author Bent Flyvbjerg explained in an interview with the Associated Press. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press

Olympic Figure Skater Morgan Cipres Retires Amid Sexual Abuse Investigation

Scott PolacekSep 29, 2020

Morgan Cipres, 29, reportedly retired from figure skating amid a sexual abuse investigation into allegations he sent lewd photographs to a 13-year-old female figure skater.

Christine Brennan of USA Today reported the news Tuesday, noting Cipres, who is from France, is under investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and the Pasco (Fla.) Sheriff's Office. The photographs were allegedly sent on Instagram to an American girl.

Cipres' pairs partner, 33-year-old Vanessa James, is also leaving the sport. The tandem was expected to compete for a medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

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According to Brennan, SafeSport opened the investigation last year. Pasco Sheriff's Office spokesperson Amanda Hunter said in June, "This is now an ongoing, active investigation."

Cipres allegedly sent the photographs in December 2017 to a girl who skated at the same rink he did in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

Both the girl and her parents said Cipres' coaches, John Zimmerman and Silvia Fontana, told them not to report the incident because Cipres was preparing for the 2018 Olympics.

Zimmerman and Fontana denied the allegations that they were "shaming and threatening the girl" to prevent her and her family from reporting the incident, per Brennan.