The United Kingdom's three-time world champion speed skater Elise Christie has revealed that she was raped as a teenager by an unknown man.
Christie, Great Britain's best-known face in speed skating, said that she was drugged by her attacker so that she was unable to fend off his advances.
She said she did fight and tried to run away but failed as he continued to chase her.
Christie, Great Britain's best-known face in speed skating, said that she was drugged by her attacker so that she was unable to fend off his advances.
She said she did fight and tried to run away but failed as he continued to chase her.
The incident happened during a night out after the Briton came back from the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.
"I went out, got drugged and then got raped by some random bloke," Christie disclosed in her autobiography, 'Resilience', which went on sale on Thursday. "It was a year before I told anyone at all about that night."
"I was strangely impaired and my body wasn't functioning properly. I tried to run away from him but I simply couldn't run. I was falling on the ground after every other step...," she added.
"Even in situations when I've been absolutely wasted since, I've never felt like I did that night. Hard as I tried, I just couldn't get away from this guy," Christie continued.
The 10-times European gold medalist claimed in her book that, despite her resistance, her assaulter eventually forced her into a taxi before raping her at his place.
"Whenever I fell on the floor, he kept running after me, picking me up and dragging me, eventually into [a] taxi," she said.
"I remember – through the brain fog – saying to the taxi driver, 'Please don't take me to this guy's house. You've got to take me home'. But the rapist was telling the taxi driver, 'She's my girlfriend. She's drunk'. At the end of this taxi journey this guy took me into his house," Christie revealed.
"It was clear he was going to sexually assault me and I was repeatedly telling him, 'No. No'," she said.
Christie, who never made a formal complaint to the police, admitted that she wasn't brave enough at that time.
"It's too late I guess. I should have been braver," she concluded.
Although Christie has tasted success at the World Championships, winning world titles in the 1000m and 1500m events in Rotterdam in 2017, she has yet to replicate her success at the Olympics.
Her unsuccessful run at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang (in Gangwon-do, South Korea) in 2018 caused her mental health problems which culminated in Christie attempting suicide that year.
Her unsuccessful run at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang (in Gangwon-do, South Korea) in 2018 caused her mental health problems which culminated in Christie attempting suicide that year.
Four years earlier in 2014, Christie (then 24), was the overwhelming favourite to win gold medals in the 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m women's speed skating at the Sochi Games, but was disqualified from two events before crashing out from the third.
Despite her unimpressive showing in Russia, she faced brutal trolls on social media after the South Koreans blamed her for the fact that their athlete, Park Seung-hi, fell in one of the competitions.
Despite her unimpressive showing in Russia, she faced brutal trolls on social media after the South Koreans blamed her for the fact that their athlete, Park Seung-hi, fell in one of the competitions.
The online abuse Christie was forced to confront became toxic and even included death threats.