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EXCLUSIVE: A Yale women’s track and field athlete said she recently left the team because of a “toxic culture and incompetent coaching staff” as dissension within the university’s athletic department leaked last week.
The athlete, who asked to remain anonymous, sent an unsolicited email with these claims to PK Press Club Digital from an official Yale student email account, and PK Press Club Digital verified that she had previously competed on the university’s women’s track and field team.
“I recently resigned due to a toxic culture and an incompetent coaching staff that was only recently hired by Vicky Chun in a forced leadership change,” the email read.
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A Yale Bulldogs flag flutters in the wind during the Ivy League Tournament championship college lacrosse game between the Pennsylvania Quakers and the Yale Bulldogs on May 8, 2022, at Stevenson-Pincince Field in Providence, RI. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The athlete then gave PK Press Club Digital permission to publish the email.
She is the latest figure connected to Yale Athletics to provide alleged details of a negative experience under athletic director Victoria Chun.
A letter signed by former Yale hockey coach Keith Allain to Yale President Maurine McInnis alleged that current Yale athletic director Victoria Chun created a “toxic environment” for university sports teams.
PK Press Club Digital published the letter last Monday after confirming with Allain that he emailed the letter to McInnis in October, shortly after his retirement.
“My name is Keith Allain, I have just retired after 19 years as a men’s hockey coach and I am writing to you at the request of several head coaches in our athletic department. They have told me that you are seeking feedback from a few coaches regarding our athletic director’s contract extension and that you are concerned that with the culture of fear that permeates the athletic department, you will not receive candid feedback,” the letter begins.
The letter later wrote: “Vicky’s singular talent is her self-promotion and has created a toxic environment within the department where she is isolated by a cadre of administrators whose primary task appears to be to silence all dissent,” the letter continued.
MOTHER OF EX-YALE SWIMMERS ALLEGES ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT “TERRORIZED” WOMEN, “EMASCULATED” MEN: “LIKE NORTH KOREA”
Last Tuesday, PK Press Club Digital reported emails that show A former Yale University administrator told the attorney for former Yale strength and conditioning coach Thomas Newman that he was recorded in a meeting.
“A former employee recorded part of a meeting with your client, without the knowledge of the university,” read an email sent to Newman’s attorney, Alan Granovsky. from a Yale deputy general counsel, who no longer works at the university.
The attorney’s email was sent in response to a letter dated August 13, 2025 with the subject line “Ongoing reputational harm and inaccuracies regarding Thomas Newman.”
The attorney’s email also included the following lines: “The University has not made any defamatory statements to anyone regarding your client” and “The University has not inappropriately disclosed any medical information, nor has the University stated that your client left the University involuntarily or is under investigation.” »
Newman’s attorneys at Granovsky & Sundaresh Employment Law sent several emails to Yale regarding the issue and Newman’s permanent departure from the university in 2021, which were provided by a PK Press Club Digital source. Newman confirmed to PK Press Club Digital that the emails were exchanged between his lawyer and the university administrator.
Meanwhile, Kim Jones, mother of three former Yale swimmers – two women and one man – and founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), claimed the athletic department “terrorized” female swimmers and “emasculated” male swimmers because both groups were forced to compete against trans athletes of the opposite sex under Chun’s leadership.
Chun, a former volleyball player and later head coach at Colgate University, took over as Yale’s athletic director in 2018 after serving in the same role at Colgate from 2012-2018.
In an interview earlier in March with the Yale Alumni Association, Chun admitted to making a mistake that brought him to tears during his first year as a Yale AD.
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More than 54,000 fans fill the Yale Bowl for the second half of the 141st game of “The Game” between the Yale Bulldogs and the Harvard Crimson on November 22, 2025, in New Haven, Connecticut. (Sean D. Elliot/Getty Images)
“I was talking to the old football players, you know, there’s this cool helmet that I had at my old institution. And I thought if Colgate can afford it, we can definitely afford it. So I announced that we’re going to get these coolest, custom-made Riddell helmets. So my assistant comes to me and says ‘What are you thinking? Do you know how much these helmets cost?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we had them at Colgate.’ She goes, ‘Yeah, there’s six or seven,’” Chun said in the interview.
“And I cried. Because I thought, ‘Wow, this is going to be the shortest-lived athletic director,’ and, you know, here I am!”
PK Press Club Digital reached out to Yale for comment but did not receive a response.
