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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 discord within the university’s athletic department has leaked over the past week.
The athlete, who asked to remain anonymous, sent an unsolicited email with the allegations to Pakinomist Digital from an official Yale email account, and Pakinomist Digital confirmed that she had previously competed on the university’s women’s track and field team.
“I recently quit due to a toxic culture and incompetent coaching staff that was only recently hired by Vicky Chun during a forced turnover in the management of the team,” part of the email read.
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A Yale Bulldogs flag flies 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 later gave Pakinomist Digital permission to publish the email.
She is the latest figure connected to Yale Athletics to come forward with alleged details of a negative experience under athletic director Victoria Chun’s leadership.
A letter signed by former Yale hockey coach Keith Allain addressed to Yale President Maurine McInnis alleges that current Yale Athletic Director Victoria Chun has created a “toxic environment” for the university’s sports team.
Pakinomist 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 just retired after 19 years as the men’s hockey coach, and I am writing to you at the request of several head coaches in our athletic department. They told me that you asked for feedback from a few coaches regarding the contract extension of our athletic director, and are concerned that with the culture of fear that may be receiving, you will not begin to get feedback from the athletic department.”
The letter later wrote: “Vicky’s unique talent is self-promotion and has created a toxic environment in the department where she is isolated by a cadre of administrators whose main job seems to be to silence all dissent,” the letter continued.
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Last Tuesday, Pakinomist Digital reported on emails showing a former Yale University administrator told a lawyer for former Yale strength and conditioning coach Thomas Newman that he was recorded during a meeting.
“A former employee recorded part of a meeting with your client without the university’s knowledge,” reads part of an email sent to Newman’s attorney, Alan Granovsky, from a Yale deputy attorney, who now no longer works at the university.
The attorney’s email was sent in response to an August 13, 2025, letter with the subject line “Continued Reputational Damage and Error Messages Regarding Thomas Newman.”
The lawyer’s email also included the lines, “The University has not made any defamatory statements to anyone regarding your client,” and “The University has not disclosed any medical information inappropriately, the University has not said that your client left the University involuntarily or is the subject of an investigation.”
Newman’s attorneys at Granovsky & Sundaresh Employment law sent multiple emails to Yale regarding the matter and Newman’s eventual departure from the university in 2021, a source provided to Pakinomist Digital. Newman has confirmed to Pakinomist Digital that emails were exchanged between his attorney and the university administrator.
Meanwhile, Kim Jones, mother of three former Yale swimmers—two women’s and one men’s—and founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) alleged that the athletic department “terrorized” female swimmers and “emasculated” the male swimmers when both groups were forced to compete with trans athletes of the opposite gender under Chun’s leadership.
Chun, a former volleyball player and later Colgate University head coach, took over as Yale athletic director in 2018 after serving in the same position at Colgate from 2012-18.
In an interview earlier this March with the Yale Alumni Association, Chun admitted to making a mistake that brought her to tears in her first year as Yale AD.
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Over 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 football alums, you know, there’s this amazing helmet that I had at my former institution. And I thought, if Colgate can afford it, we can definitely afford it. So I announced that we’re getting these coolest custom Riddell helmets. So then my deputy comes to me and says, ‘What do you think? Do you know how much these helmets cost?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we had them at Colgate.’ She says, ‘Yeah, like six or seven of them,'” Chun said in the interview.
“And I cried. Because I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to be the shortest-lived athletic director,’ and you know, here I am!”
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to Yale for comment, but has not received a response.
