"My wonderful strong and surprisingly compbadionate brother, John Coughlin, took his own life today, I have no words, I love you, John …" said her sister, Angela Laune, on Friday night in a publication Facebook.
"We are surprised by the news of the death of the two-time US couples champion, John Coughlin," United States figure skating said in a statement on Saturday. "Our most sincere and sincere sympathies are with his father Mike, his sister Angela and the rest of his family, out of respect for the family, we will not have more comments until a later time."
The world of skating laments.
His former trainer, Dalilah Sappenfield, wrote on Facebook: "Yesterday I received the most stunned, devastating and heartbreaking call! … It hurts me so much to know that John took his life yesterday, his family, the skaters community and I lost very special man who lived his life with integrity and kindness ".
The International Skating Union said it was "shocked and saddened by the unexpected death of John Coughlin, President of the ISU Athletes Commission and member of the ISU Couple and Partner Skating Committee. The ISU, we want to share with you our deepest condolences and kind thoughts with the family and friends of John in this moment of pain ".
In a statement, the two-time Olympic and world champion of couples, Randy Gardner, said: "This is something tragic from the point of view, with the accusations still unknown, we still have to know the pressure to which it has been subjected. Listen to this, as we are also trying to protect the athletes in our sport. "