Indicted for rape and sexual assault on a minor, the swimmer acknowledged the "materiality of the facts" but contested "any coercion" exerted on the alleged victim, 13 years old at the time and daughter of his trainer Lionel Horter.

The Mulhouse prosecutor on Monday recalled the framework of the law which prohibits any sexual relationship between an adult and a minor under 15, even if the latter is consenting.

Yannick Agnel was 24 at the time.

Since the indictment of the two-time Olympic champion, who became a consultant, the swimming microcosm has been speechless, dumbfounded as the world of sport had been when Sarah Abitbol had said publicly that she had been raped by her coach between her 15 years. and 17 years old.

This was the starting point of the movement for the freedom of speech in sport, or listening because sometimes the victims spoke without being heard: a major investigation by the Disclose collective at the end of 2019 revealed "major dysfunctions" at all levels, and counted at least 276 victims, mostly children under 15, and in 28 different disciplines.

It is often the entourage of athletes: coaches, doctors, physiotherapists, adults with a certain authority.

As in the USA gymnastics case where the doctor Larry Nassar claimed more than 250 victims, most of them minors, in particular the star Simone Biles who testified in mid-September before the American Congress after the Tokyo Olympics where she erupted in full flight .

Former gymnast trainer Larry Nassar, author of more than 250 sexual abuses, is on trial in Eaton County Court in Charlotte state, February 5, 2018 SCOTT OLSON Getty / AFP / Archives

In the documentary "Athlete A", several victims tell how in this harsh environment of the gym, the doctor and osteopath Larry Nassar attracted the complicity of teenage girls, by playing the friendly supervisor who secretly gave snacks to young girls whose weight is strictly controlled.

In England, the revelations of footballer Andy Woodward in 2016, who revealed that he had been assaulted by a coach, generated a cascade of testimonies in English football.

Systemic abuse

In France, according to the latest figures published by the Ministry of Sports, the unit for the fight against sexual violence reports "600 people implicated", of which Yannick Agnel was not part.

As Fabienne Bourdais, the ministerial delegate in charge of this unit, explained a few months ago to AFP, there is "also" violence exerted by an athlete on one or another, at within a team for example.

They are more rarely made public even if what is considered the first complaint in the matter is the fact of Catherine Moyon De Baecque, French hammer throwing champion, who denounced in the 1990s sexual assaults by members of the his team during an internship.

Her attackers were convicted but the sportswoman was ostracized from her sport.

The former president of the ice sports federation Didier Gailhaguet at the headquarters of the FFSG in Paris, February 5, 2020 FRANCK FIFE AFP / Archives

Monday, the prosecutor of Mulhouse indicated that "the personality" of Yannick Agnel had "been able to be taken into account".

"He's someone who is a champion, who had a strong personality," she said without further details.

A 24-year-old double Olympic champion against a 13-year-old swimmer.

Author of a documentary on sexual violence in sport and of the book "the trainer and the child", Pierre-Emmanuel Luneau explains in his book, published a few months ago, that the sport environment can be conducive to the grip, even more when it comes to the high level.

Teenagers in internship thousands of kilometers away, pressure to succeed, intimacy with the supervisor (s), the "big sport family" has its silences and its secrets and according to him the abuses against children are systemic.

© 2021 AFP