Paris (AFP)

"I was raped at 15": a new wave of accusations against coaches, led by former skater Sarah Abitbol and published Wednesday in L'Equipe and L'Obs, breaks the silence on violence a little more sexuality in high performance sport.

European multi-medalist and world bronze medalist in figure skating in pairs in 2000, Abitbol accused her former trainer Gilles Beyer of sexual assault and rape between 1990 and 1992, when she was aged 15 to 17 years old.

"He started doing horrible things, until sexual abuse and I was raped at the age of 15. It was the first time that a man touched me," she testified in a video on the site. de l'Obs, on the eve of the release of his book, "Un si long silence" (Plon).

Other former skaters are making similar charges against Beyer, 1978 French champion, and other coaches.

Hélène Godard accuses L'Equipe and L'Obs Beyer of having had sex with her when she was 13 and 14 years old.

Anne Bruneteaux and Béatrice Dumur accuse Michel Lotz of having abused them in the 1980s when they were 13 years old.

The coaches implicated deny the facts or did not respond to L'Equipe and L'Obs.

- Planetary wave -

In the context of the global wave #MeToo of freedom of speech for victims of sexual violence in many circles, other cases of abuse have marked French sport in recent months.

Last Friday, former tennis coach Andrew Geddes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for raping four of his former underage students.

At the end of 2019, an investigation by the collective of journalists We Report had already revealed "major dysfunctions" at different levels - federations, clubs, local authorities, the State, justice - in 77 cases having killed at least 276 victims, mostly children under the age of 15, and in 28 different sports.

This new wave of revelations made the government react. Secretary of State for Gender Equality Marlène Schiappa praised the approach of the sportswomen who testified and addressed her "full support".

The Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, welcomed an "essential and beneficial" initiative, recalling having launched the thorny project of checking the criminal records of volunteers, and the organization on February 20 of a national convention on the prevention of violence sex in sport.

- "Organized silence" -

In L'Obs, Sarah Abitbol claims to have mentioned after the end of her career the case of Beyer with the then Minister of Sport, Jean-François Lamour, who allegedly replied: "Yes, we have a file on him, but we're going to close our eyes, "according to the video of the interview given by the skater to the weekly.

Contacted by L'Obs, the former minister said he did not remember this conversation.

"I understood that I was faced with an organized silence. Basically, everyone said to me: + Take your meds and be quiet! + I obeyed: I took my meds and I fell silent ", she told L'Obs.

According to L'Equipe, Beyer was the subject of a judicial investigation which did not succeed in the early 2000s, then of an administrative investigation carried out by the Ministry of Sports, when he was director of the teams. from France and national trainer.

The latter led the ministry to end his functions as a sports technical advisor on March 31, 2001, but Beyer then continued his career within the Paris club of flying Frenchmen and carried out several mandates in the executive office of the French Sports Federation ice (FFSG) until 2018.

"It is very problematic," said Schiappa on RTL Wednesday evening, announcing that his ministry and that of Sports were going to "approach the federation (...) to see if all the conditions are really implemented to protect young women and the new generations of these predators. "

The president of the FFSG, Didier Gailhaguet, in place since 1998 with the exception of the period 2004-2007, did not respond to L'Equipe or L'Obs. He also did not respond to requests from AFP.

arb-es-TBA-av / f br / jr / ll

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