ORLANDO – A former wheelchair tennis prodigy alleges the United States Tennis Association and its player development program ignored her former coach’s “grooming” and instead ostracized her for reporting the abuse.
Plaintiff Angelina “Gaila” Fosbinder filed her lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Fosbinder, who is now 23 and lives in North Carolina, alleges the USTA continues to identify fellow defendant Taylor Wingate as a head coach for USTA-affiliated workshops and hold him out as an “approved, endorsed, and affiliated” coach – despite his permanent ineligibility and lifetime ban imposed by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
She also argues in her 40-page lawsuit that prior to Wingate’s relationship with her, other USTA members and athletes experienced “instances of inappropriate behavior” by Wingate.
“Despite this prior history, the USTA failed to take reasonable corrective or protective action, including failing to investigate, discipline, restrict, suspend, or otherwise limit Wingate’s access to minor and vulnerable athletes, thereby allowing Wingate’s misconduct to continue unabated,” the complaint states.
USTA is the National Governing Body, or NGB, of tennis. Membership in USTA is required for any athlete who wishes to compete in any sanctioned tournament in the U.S. or abroad, or to compete in Olympic or Paralympic games.
USTA Player Development, also named in the complaint, is an affiliate and subsidiary component of the USTA and is responsible for identifying, training, funding, and developing elite American tennis athletes, including wheelchair tennis athletes.
According to Fosbinder’s filing, athletes selected for the program receive “substantial benefits and support” from the USTA and USTA PD, including financial assistance for coaching, training, travel, tournament participation, sports medicine, and other developmental resources intended to advance the athlete’s career.
In exchange, participating athletes are required to comply with “extensive” program requirements and conditions imposed by USTA PD, Fosbinder claims.
Wheelchair tennis, which originated in 1976, is the most professionalized adaptive sport in the world and is played at the highest competitive levels worldwide.
Fosbinder, born in April 2003 in Ukraine and adopted at age four, suffers from arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, a congenital condition affecting the joints and muscles.
At age eight, she began playing tennis. By 16, the physical limitations caused by her condition required her to compete exclusively in wheelchair tennis.
She emerged as one of the top-performing wheelchair tennis players in the U.S., achieving elite national and international recognition at a young age, her filing states.
As a direct result of her athletic success and elite status, USTA invited Fosbinder to participate in the USTA Player Development Program, through which she received grants and other financial support used to fund her coaching, training, and tournament participation.
In 2022, she was invited to become a member of the National USTA Collegiate Team, a USTA-supported initiative intended to develop elite wheelchair tennis athletes for collegiate, national, and international competition.
Also in 2022, she was selected by USTA Player and Coach Development to receive a High Performance Wheelchair Collegiate Grant through the USTA Wheelchair High Performance Program.
Fosbinder claims she began receiving coaching advice from Wingate when she was 16. At the time, Wingate was 32.
“Soon after beginning the coach-athlete relationship, Wingate began blurring clear professional boundaries, engaging in inappropriate conduct that included sending Plaintiff overly complimentary messages and communications containing sexually suggestive content, inconsistent with any legitimate coaching purpose,” her complaint states.
In 2010, the United States Olympic Committee, or USOC, formally notified its NGBs, including the USTA, of the urgent need to strengthen athlete-protection and child-safeguarding measures following multiple sexual-abuse allegations across the Olympic movement.
Beginning in 2011, the USOC specifically recommended that NGBs expand disqualifying criteria for prospective coaches and adopt stronger abuse-prevention policies designed to protect vulnerable athletes.
Despite these warnings, the USTA resisted implementing many of the USOC’s recommended reforms, Fosbinder claims.
In late 2012, the USOC again pushed for immediate and meaningful safeguards, describing sexual abuse by coaches as a growing “crisis.” The USTA again failed and refused to adopt the recommended protective measures, Fosbinder notes in her filing.
Among the USOC’s proposed safeguards was a policy prohibiting coaches from engaging in romantic or sexual relationships with their athletes.
“The USOC recognized that such relationships inherently involve power imbalances and create a foreseeable risk that coaches would exploit their authority to engage in inappropriate sexual conduct with vulnerable athletes,” the complaint states.
While many NGBs adopted this policy, the USTA vehemently opposed it – in part because multiple coaches within its sport were known to be dating or engaging in relationships with their athletes, Fosbinder alleges.
In 2013, the USOC ultimately compelled the USTA to implement minimum athlete-protection measures as a condition of its continued status as an NGB. In response, the USTA created what it termed its “Safe Play” program.
The USTA’s Safe Play Conduct, Policies and Guidelines prohibit sexual misconduct, emotional and physical misconduct, and other inappropriate conduct.
In 2017, Congress enacted the Safe Sport Authorization Act. The SafeSport Code, as it’s called, sets forth mandatory standards of conduct, reporting obligations, and abuse-prevention requirements applicable to NGBs, including the USTA.
“Under the SafeSport Code, an athlete cannot legally consent to sexual activity where a power imbalance exists,” the complaint states. “The SafeSport Code expressly provides that a power imbalance is presumed to exist throughout a coach-athlete relationship, regardless of the athlete’s age.”
Fosbinder alleges she experienced inappropriate physical contact by Wingate while attending an USTA-sanctioned tournament in 2019. She was 16.
She claims Wingate sent flirtatious texts and emojis and initiated discussions about romantic and sexual relationships with women – topics that were “developmentally inappropriate” for a minor athlete and “wholly inconsistent” with a professional coaching role.
Fosbinder alleges Wingate “groomed” her.
“Grooming” refers to a pattern of manipulative behaviors used to gain an athlete’s trust, create emotional dependence, normalize inappropriate conduct, isolate the athlete from support systems, and facilitate sexual exploitation or abuse.
Fosbinder contends that during trips she was provided with alcohol, marijuana, and personal gifts.
When she turned 18, that’s when the relationship turned intimate with Wingate, she alleges.
It wasn’t until June 2024 that Fosbinder terminated both the coaching and sexual relationship with Wingate. Later that month, USTA abruptly informed her that she was being removed from the Player Development Program.
“The decision was sudden and unexpected and was communicated in the middle of the night through email communication without any face-to-face meeting, telephone call, or other meaningful communication from the USTA regarding the reasons for her removal,” the complaint states.
She alleges that her abrupt termination is related to the end of her relationship with Wingate.
In September 2024, Fosbinder filed an incident report to the U.S. Center for SafeSport related to the grooming and sexual exploitation committed by Wingate.
She claims the defendants’ actions made her feel ostracized, isolated, and “effectively silenced.”
Following a 12-month investigation, Wingate was charged with violating the SafeSport Code. After a two-day evidentiary hearing, an arbitrator upheld the decision, which included a sanction of lifelong permanent ineligibility.
“The totality of Wingate’s conduct and the abusive coach-athlete relationship have caused Plaintiff significant and lasting harm,” Fosbinder’s complaint states, adding that as a result she was forced to withdraw from Virginia Tech.
At the urging of USTA personnel, Fosbinder had accepted an offer to attend Virginia Tech to assist in establishing and expanding a collegiate adaptive wheelchair tennis program.
“As a result of the trauma associated with Defendants’ conduct, Plaintiff withdrew from participation in Virginia Tech’s collegiate wheelchair team, causing substantial disruption to a newly developing adaptive athletics program in which Plaintiff had played a foundational role,” the complaint states.
Fosbinder seeks compensatory damages, pre-judgment interest, punitive damages and attorney fees. She is represented by Normand Judkins & Couch PLLC in Orlando. Judge Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe has been assigned the case.
