Lakehead's former running coach the latest facing maltreatment claims by athletes at Thunder Bay university

Lakehead University (LU) is once again facing pressure from former student athletes, this time centred on allegations that a former running coach maltreated them at the Thunder Bay, Ont., school.

Former cross country and track and field athletes have come forward to talk about Kip Sigsworth, who left the university's athletic department in 2020 after 16 years as a head coach.

According to 11 of them who spoke to CBC News, Sigsworth regularly singled out and belittled athletes, and created a culture where athletes were pushed to the point of competing with injuries because they were afraid to voice their concerns.

"Almost from Day 1, I noticed that [Sigsworth's] treatment of people and the way he spoke to them was very condescending … belittling of runners at practice was commonplace, people were treated poorly, particularly people who weren't as fast," said Dr. Connor McGuire, who joined the running programming after starting at LU a decade ago, and is now a physician and plastic surgery resident in Eastern Canada.

The latest allegations come months after the departure of longtime women's basketball coach Jon Kreiner, who said he "parted ways" with the university last fall, and was facing allegations he maltreated and stole money from his players. Lakehead has never publicly acknowledged the investigation or its status.

Over several months, CBC News has also been investigating the university's athletics department. We spoke to 30 former student athletes who largely described a culture where complaints were not taken seriously by the athletic department and they feared speaking out in case of retribution.

Now, some Canadian safe sport researchers that CBC News reached out to are critical of steps taken by LU, including