Spotlight on Jessica Halloran
Winner of the 2020 Walkley Award for All Media: Sports Journalism with Julian Linden
CW: Discusses themes of suicide.
Broadly researched and uncovering a dark world unknown outside figure skating, Jessica Halloran and Julian Linden’s powerful series follows the tragic suicide of a young athlete to the root cause.
The reports’ revelations resulted in major reform proposals to better safeguard child athletes from being “traded” between countries, subjected to abuse and inadequate concussion management and reduced to a life of poverty when their funding levels are slashed.
Story link: “Brutal reality of sports trafficking jam” ($)
“Displaying dogged tenacity, Jessica Halloran and Julian Linden pursued a compelling investigation into uncomfortable aspects of figure skating,” the Walkley Judges said. “Sparked by the tragic death of a young star, the expose forced officials to reconsider long-standing selection policies and concussion treatment. This is great journalism.“
We spoke with Jessica shortly after the Walkley Awards to discuss the fundamental industry change the story brought about to protect young athletes.
Interview by Margot Saville
Congratulations on an amazing story. Can you tell me, how did you first find out about the situation that led to this story?
Well, we first learned about these situations once we started delving into her sudden death — Katia Alexandrovskaya suddenly passed away, she committed suicide by throwing herself out of a building in Moscow. Rather than let it be just a sensational blip in time — because it did garner a bit of publicity at the time — my colleague Julian Linden and I decided to investigate.
It’s actually Julian who really first picked up on this story and said, “Hey, what happened here, what led up to her death?” Julian has such an extensive background in covering sport internationally. He had all these amazing contacts and he started making phone calls, and then I really started deep diving into her close friends here in Australia and abroad.
How much time did it take you from, say, talking about the story to actually getting the story onto the website?
I would say about a month, really throwing everything at it for about a month to five weeks. Chasing down her ice-skating partner, Harley Windsor, who had fled to France to get away from everything in the middle of a pandemic and just go and skate and train by himself; and then really finding out who were her true allies and friends here in Australia, who were really concerned about what had happened to her in the lead up to her death.
Your story had a huge response, not just about Katya, but it kind of uncovered a whole culture of abuse and shocking practices in the whole sport. Can you describe a little bit of what that response was?
The response was quite huge. I think like many sports — gymnastics, swimming — there has been a real underbelly, and a dark underbelly to these sports, a really ugly side where, especially young women, have been used and abused and treated terribly — and it was no different in ice skating.
I think that Katia’s story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that sport and she had suffered enormously and had developed an alcohol problem and people knew she had an alcohol sort of dependency and not enough was done around that. And, of course, there’s also the fact that she was being thrown so high in the air and falling and suffering severe concussions that were just brushed over. She was collapsing in shopping malls and still there didn’t seem to be the rise of protection mechanisms around her.
“Katia’s story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that sport… where young women have been used and abused and treated terribly”
But what has happened since is the International Skating Union is considering raising the [minimum competition] age from 15 to 17 across the sport. And also, here we’ve got the Australian Olympic Committee, Commonwealth Games Committee and Australian Paralympic Committee all pushing for an independent framework. They’ve formed a way that athletes can make complaints without repercussions, because what happens at the moment is that [they’re] effectively complaining to their peers.
Just having that sort of independent avenue will be really important to ensure that these young athletes and young women are protected in the future and that what happened to Katia doesn’t happen again, because what happened is she was expelled from the system here and not financially supported as well. She really suffered, sleeping on couches, and was really struggling financially, and there just needs to be more support around these young athletes.
“[Katia] was expelled from the system here and not financially supported. She really suffered, sleeping on couches, was really struggling financially”
Would you say that your story has led to a safer environment for young women in the sport?
The story has absolutely led to a safer environment for young women in the sport, but there is more to be done in this space and I think it should be at the forefront of every sporting administrators mind to take care of their young athletes. And I think more can be done. I mean, policies are great, but there needs to be more action.
What made you want to be a journalist in the first place, and a sports journalist?
Well, I grew up in country Victoria and I spent a lot of time watching my dad play country football and I just really loved the drama and the excitement and the sense of community around a footy game. From there, I just became obsessed with the sports pages and idolized number of sports writers, and including Jaqueline Magnay and Caroline Wilson. And yeah, I just loved the game. You know, later into my career, it’s not so much the theatre of sport but being able to make sport a safe place for me. And that’s why I think doing the stories really resonated with me and I’m glad it’s had the impact it’s had.
What are you most proud of, of all the stories that you’ve told?
This story. I’m really proud of this story, it was great working with a journalist as experienced as Julian Linden who had all this experience working internationally. He has covered countless Olympic Games and world athletic and swimming championships, he used work for Reuters out of New York and Singapore. I don’t know anyone that has a better international sporting contact book than him. His understanding of how it worked at the top of sport — and his contacts — were integral to this investigation. I’m really proud of the change we created with this.
What’s the best thing about receiving this particular Walkley Award?
The best thing about it, I think, is hearing from Katia’s friends, one in particular she called her Australian mum, Belinda Noonan — who was just so overwhelmed with the fact that Katia’s story had had an impact and had created some change, and that to me was the greatest thrill, seeing that have some meaning with the people Katia left behind.
Is there anybody else you’d like to thank for their help in doing this story?
I would really like to thank Chris Dore, Claire Harvey and Michelle Gunn, who all really championed this story and really understood it. Eric George, who was involved in the multimedia aspect of it. We’re so fortunate to have that kind of backing here, and they really believed in it. Julian works for the Daily Telegraph, Mick Carol was fantastic there and Tim Morrissey and James Silver.
- Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
Jessica Halloran is the chief sports writer at The Australian. She started her journalism career as a cadet at The Sydney Morning Herald, became a sports columnist at the Sunday Telegraph and joined The Australian earlier this year. For more than 18 years she has reported from some of the largest sporting events, including the Olympics. She wrote tennis player Jelena Dokic’s best-selling biography, Unbreakable.
Julian Linden began his journalism career in 1990 at the Imlay Magnet on the New South Wales far south coast. He worked for four years with United Press International in London, then spent two decades covering international sport for various news agencies, taking postings in New York and Singapore. He joined The Daily Telegraph in 2018, reporting on rugby, cricket and Olympic sports.
