Apples fitness chief who joked to employees about sleeping with Olympic skier retires: report

Apple’s fitness chief is retiring in the wake of allegations he fostered a toxic workplace and harassed employees — including claims he once joked about sleeping with an Olympic skier.Jay Blahnik, 57, who served as Apple’s vice president of fitness technologies, allegedly joked during a 2021 meeting about sleeping with Olympic skier Ted Ligety, according to two attendees cited by The New York Times.He also allegedly suggested that a member of his team secured Ligety’s participation in a fitness feature by offering the Olympian a neck massage, according to accounts relayed by employees and cited by The Times.Apple was accused of going to significant lengths to shield Blahnik, who helped create popular fitness features on the Apple Watch and later oversaw the company’s Fitness+ service.The company settled one sexual harassment complaint and declined to discipline him — while allegedly allowing him to remain in charge of the same team and reporting structure tied to the complaints, according to the lawsuit and employee accounts.Blahnik has also been accused by multiple current and former employees of a broader pattern of toxic behavior, including making comments about trainers’ bodies, using vulgar language about colleagues’ personal lives and joking about alleged affairs among staff.A lawsuit filed against Blahnik by a former employee alleges that he sexually harassed creative director Wil Tidman for years and pursued him romantically — then retaliated when the interest wasn’t reciprocated.The complaint claims the conduct began shortly after Tidman’s 2019 hire and escalated into a “campaign of harassment and job-related retaliation.”Blahnik is alleged to have commented on female trainers’ “rear ends and breasts,” according to multiple employees cited by The Times.

He also allegedly speculated in front of staff that a colleague’s wife had cheated, using a vulgar term while pointing to the couple’s child having a different hair color...