Two convicted for injury to skater at Lausanne Youth Olympics
The Lausanne Police Court on Monday convicted two people in connection with a serious accident involving a Russian skater during a practice session at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne.
The defendants, technicians at an events organisation company in German-speaking Switzerland, were sentenced to a fine of CHF9,000 ($11,100), suspended for two years. They were found guilty of causing serious bodily harm through negligence, the presiding judge stated.
According to the judge, they had failed in their duty of care. The husband of the figure skater, Olga Sevastianova, who acted as her assistant during her performances, and two other technicians from the Swiss German company were acquitted.
The lawyer for one of the two convicted men has already announced his intention to appeal, while the other is waiting to analyse the full text of the judgement. According to her lawyer, Elza Reymond, Sevastianova “will be satisfied with the judgement, having waited six years for justice to be done”. Her husband’s lawyer described the court’s legal reasoning as “convincing”.
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The incident took place on January 7, 2020. The acrobat was performing aerial manoeuvres above the ice, suspended from a rope at the Malley ice rink, when she fell from a height of five metres. Sevastianova, who was 35 at the time of the incident, was admitted to Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), where she was placed in an induced coma, initially in a life-threatening condition.
Her injuries included severe liver damage, the removal of part of her skull, four broken ribs, fractures to the bones of one hand and several facial bones, as well as damage to the optic nerves. As a result of these injuries, she was unable to return to work.
The investigation had established the technical cause of the accident, namely the incorrect installation of the winch that was holding Sevastianova suspended in the air.
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