Sexual violence: French skating at the heart of a scandal

Text by: RFI Follow

This is the case that shakes French sport. For several days, former skaters have accused coaches of sexual violence. Today, the scandal takes on a political dimension. The Minister of Sports demands the resignation of the president of the French Ice Sports Federation. And an investigation was opened on February 4, 2020.

Publicity

It all started last week with overwhelming testimony. In Un si long silence , Sarah Abitbol , former French champion, accused her former trainer Gilles Beyer of rape in the early 1990s when she was a minor. The latter is also implicated, alongside other coaches, by three ex-skaters in the newspaper L'Equipe published on January 29.

An open investigation

Testimonies relate to the alleged facts dating back to the 1970s and 1980s and therefore prescribed. Gilles Beyer, 62, recognizes a few days later “intimate” and “inappropriate” relationships with Sarah Abitbol and apologizes to her.

On February 4, 2020, the Paris public prosecutor's office also opened an investigation into rapes and sexual assaults on minors. In a press release, the public prosecutor of Paris, Rémy Heitz, specified that the investigations, entrusted to the brigade of minors, "will endeavor to identify any other victims who may have suffered, in the context described, similar offenses nature ”, beyond the facts mentioned in Sarah Abitbol's book and targeting Gilles Beyer.

The president of the Federation of ice sports involved

It is also the responsibilities of Gilles Beyer's hierarchy who question. Targeted by an investigation and dismissed from his duties as technical manager of his federation by the Ministry of Sports in the early 2000s, Beyer continued to play a non-negligible role in French skating thereafter. Given the scale of the scandal, the Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, decided to strike hard. In its sights: the president of the French federation of ice sports (FFSG), Didier Gailhaguet. After receiving it yesterday, the former swimmer demanded the resignation of the one who has been in place since 2007, after having officiated for the first time from 1998 to 2004: '' exceptional gravity in the world of skating. The number of facts and their spread over time illustrate that beyond the people mentioned, a general dysfunction exists within the French Federation of Ice Sports. Roxana Maracineanu also brandished a very strong and very rare threat: that of a withdrawal of delegation to the FFSG. Clearly, the athletes would continue to practice their discipline, but not under the aegis of their federation.

Gailhaguet strikes back !

In the process, Didier Gailhaguet, counter-attacked: “ Roxana Maracineanu did not listen to me and above all she did not hear me ! All of her decisions were already made in advance. I made mistakes, not mistakes. And the 66-year-old leader aimed at another Sports Minister without naming her : Marie-George Buffet, in office from 1997 to 2002. Gailhaguet accuses the former National Secretary of the Communist Party of being responsible for the return to the circuit of Gilles Beyer. The interested party defended herself, at the microphone of our colleagues from RMC: “ We immediately suspended Beyer and we transmitted her file to the prosecution. The prosecution did not follow up and, little by little, this character once again entered the circuit. But the department acted quickly at the time and I want to say to President Gailhaguet that this is not a matter between him and me, it is a matter between the victims and those who have assaulted these young girls ! "

Didier Gailhaguet plans to say more in the coming hours. The leader is scheduled to hold a press conference this Wednesday. Will he announce his resignation? Nothing is less sure. Deemed unsinkable, it has already survived other scandals , such as a suspension following a serious case of cheating at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. A report by the Court of Auditors on management drifts in within the Federation of ice sports had still pushed him to make his apron in 2004.

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