Complainant in Nikolaj Sorensen sexual assault case reveals identity

The woman who has alleged Canadian-Danish figure skater Nikolaj Sorensen sexually assaulted her has publicly identified herself, saying she hopes doing so will help create a safer environment in the sport.

Ashley Foy, an American figure skating coach and former skater, stepped forward as the complainant in an interview published Thursday by Lori Ward, a former CBC investigative journalist who now runs the Substack “Broken Ice.”

“I hope coming forward helps create a safer environment in figure skating. Survivors should not have to carry the weight of their assaults on their own and they deserve protection,” Foy said in a statement to The Canadian Press. “My hope is my story helps even just one person understand they matter and are believed. I also want to close this chapter of my life and focus on helping other survivors with my charity ‘Just Ice, No Abuse.’”

Foy accused Sorensen of sexually assaulting her in Hartford, Conn., in 2012. The allegation was first reported by USA Today in January 2024.

Sorensen was suspended from skating for a minimum of six years in October 2024 following an investigation by the now-defunct Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. An arbitrator with the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada overturned the ban in June 2025 on jurisdictional grounds, but the case remains under appeal.

No criminal charges have been laid in the case. Sorensen has denied the allegation, which has not been proven.

“Our client denies the allegations and maintains his innocence,” Sorensen’s lawyer Dylan Jones said in an email to The Canadian Press.

“We would also note that these allegations have never been tested in court. Given the nature and rules governing the proceedings to date, our client has not had access to a complete version of the complainant’s account.”

In a video interview Foy told Ward that the case “has taken so much of my life from me.”  

“To me it was very important to remain my anonymous status because I figured I wouldn’t be strong enough to go through it if everybody knew it was me, there was some level of shame and, of course, professional repercussions that could come with saying your name publicly,” Foy said.

“But at this point it’s been nearly three years since I first reported and so much has happened … I’ve seen so many things in the sport happening that I felt it was time now to put a name and a face to the story.”

Foy also said that public support for Sorensen from the current Olympic ice dance champions influenced her decision to step forward.

Montreal-born skater Laurence Fournier Beaudry, who teamed with France’s Guillaume Cizeron following Sorensen’s suspension, is Sorensen’s girlfriend and former skating partner.

Fournier Beaudry addressed the allegation in the Netflix docuseries “Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing,” breaking down in tears as she described being caught up in the fallout.

“This was extremely difficult because it was not only about skating, it was about my integrity, it was about his integrity,” she says in the documentary released in February. “I know my boyfriend 100 per cent. I know him.”

Asked on Feb. 6 at the Olympic Games what message defending Sorensen sends to survivors, Fournier Beaudry replied: “We said everything we needed to say about that subject.”

“Comments and remarks about this very traumatic event in my life being spoken about on Netflix documentaries and really only getting the one side,” Foy told Ward. “Not knowing who was on the other side of it, that there was a real human attached to this story.”

“I just want people to know that the survivor is a real person and somebody that’s still very involved in the sport. I have to live through this every day,” she added. “I just feel that so much has changed but at the same time not nearly enough has changed, that me coming forward with my name and my story, my face, that may make a bigger difference, and hopefully move some things a little quicker along with the systems improving and victims, survivors feeling comfortable to report their abuse and coming forward and ending this culture of silence.”

Foy is a two-time U.S. regional champion and national finalist, junior Grand Prix competitor and German national bronze medallist. She skated for the U.S. in pairs and ice dance, and then represented Germany in ice dance with partner Benjamin Blum. She has since coached national champions in the U.S. and the Netherlands, where she is now based.

Foy is fundraising to launch “Just Ice, No Abuse,” a charity aimed at helping figure skaters who report sexual assault navigate the legal system and associated costs.

“It is such a challenging thing to do in the first place just to make the decision (to report),” she said. “Then to have to navigate the legal side of it on top of it and to do that without legal support, or to put yourself into debt trying to pay for a lawyer to help you with it is … such a barrier to reporting.

“There’s not nearly enough support out there for people who want to report, so I have become very passionate since this has started about when this is done, I’m really going to create something to help others.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2026.