The European Figure Skating Championships in Lithuania, which concluded on Sunday, did not go without scandals. A woman working at the event claims that she was harassed by a drunk man from the organising team. The president of the Figure Skating Federation denies the accusations. The police are investigating the incident, while the Labour Inspectorate is probing possible illegal work at the championship.
Kaja Elena Brilė, who worked at the European Figure Skating Championship in Kaunas, has written a lengthy post on Facebook about how she was harassed by Ervinas Kvitkauskas, a sports journalist and one of the organisers of the event, who she claims was drunk. Instead of being assisted, she was thrown out of the Žalgiris Arena at the insistence of the president of the Lithuanian Skating Federation.
“Invited by my team leader, I came to my place of work [at the arena] and at some point, I asked a person I didn’t know not to disturb the work of the team,” Brilė summarised the situation to LRT TV. “In the end, he summoned the president [of the Lithuanian Skating Federation]. The security took away my accreditation, tried to remove my clothes, and threw me out of the arena. I called the police when I was still in the arena because a group of men were dragging me around.”
Vytautas Jasutis, president of the Skating Federation, who was involved in the conflict, says that Brilė had no right to be in the zone of the Žalgiris Arena from which she was expelled.
“She entered the main [zone in the] arena illegally, and worst of all, maybe because of our security laxity, she got onto the judges’ podium, where even I can’t go. When we noticed this loophole, she was asked to leave and behaved inappropriately, then we called security and security called the police,” claims Jasutis.
Brilė counters, meanwhile, that she was assigned to work at the main arena by her team leader.
“I don’t really understand what they mean by the judges’ zone, because it is a common area as you can see from the broadcasts, the judges are sitting in one row and the support staff are there above them, I was sitting right next to them, and there are a lot of my colleagues who can attest to it.”
There is also a possible breach of labour law. While Jasutis claims that Brilė was a volunteer at the championship, the woman says that the Federation had promised to give her a contract and to pay for her work.
“We were promised a contract, we were promised pay by phone and by email, I haven’t seen the contract, it wasn’t signed, there was no pay,” she told LRT TV.
Brilė says she felt humiliated and plans to write a police statement about the behaviour of Kvitkauskas. LRT could not contact the latter for comment.
“My personal impression was that he [Kvitkauskas] was inadequate in his behaviour, that whatever he did, he was interfering with the work of the team,” Brilė said.
“I think this is a provocation, we will react to it and we will defend ourselves,” says Federation President Jasutis. The Federation and the security staff involved in the incident have already filed statements with the police.
Gintautas Jakštas, the minister of education, science, and sports, has also reacted to the incident. On Sunday night, he posted on Facebook that the situation needs to be urgently investigated, and if the circumstances are confirmed, “strict decisions” must be taken.
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