Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs is to work with Rana Reider, the American sprint coach who was investigated after complaints of sexual misconduct.
Reider’s lawyer said his client had “acknowledged a consensual romantic relationship with an adult athlete, which presented a power imbalance”.
Italian Jacobs says he is working with Reider to prepare for Paris 2024.
Since winning gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the sprinter has struggled with injuries and said: “Change is sometimes necessary. I will do my best, as always, to return to giving Italians the emotions they experienced at Tokyo 2020.”
In a statement following the conclusion of the investigation into Reider, lawyer Ryan Stevens said his 52-year-old client “was not found in violation of any other sexual misconduct claims”.
Law firm Griffen and Stevens added that Reider had “credibly and consistently denied all other allegations of sexual misconduct”.
Temporary measures were imposed on American Reider in November 2022, preventing him from carrying out unsupervised coaching and restricting contact with certain individuals while the investigation was carried out.
But following the investigation, Griffen and Stevens said Reider would “continue his elite-level coaching of sprinters and jumpers”.
The investigation was carried out by the US Center for SafeSport, the independent American safeguarding body.
The organisation, which handles allegations of emotional, physical and sexual abuse in Olympic and Paralympic sports, did not publish the details of Reider’s case.
Reider has established himself as one of the world’s top track and field coaches, having overseen the success of several elite athletes, including Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse and four-time triple jump world champion Christian Taylor.
The former UK Athletics employee coached British athletes including Adam Gemili and Daryll Neita.
But in 2021, British athletes were told by UK Athletics to cut ties with Reider while the US Center for SafeSport investigated the complaints.
Neita, 27, left Reider’s Florida-based training group to join Italian Marco Airale in Padua but 400m sprinter Laviai Nielsen and former 200m European champion Gemili were taken off UK Athletics’ World Class Programme after opting to stay with the US coach.
Neita said she felt UK Athletics “blackmailed” athletes by removing funding from those who did not part ways with Reider.
