• Scandal: Sexual abuse in French skating

He clung to the chair, but has ended up resigning. Didier Gailhaguet , the president of the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG), resigned on Saturday, after the scandal over alleged rapes and sexual abuse that has been shaking Gallo figure skating for days.

"For the sake of pure appeasement, I took with philosophy, dignity, but without any bitterness in the face of their injustice, the wise decision to resign from my position as president of the federation," Gailhaguet announced to the press after an extraordinary federal assembly . In announcing his resignation, he denounced "the ministerial dictatorship."

Gailhaguet - who was president of the FFSG since 1998, with a parenthesis between 2004 and 2007 - has ended up giving in to the pressures of the French Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineau , who had asked him to resign last Monday. The minister, a former Romanian Olympic swimmer, denounced the failures of the French Ice Sports Federation for not acting and denouncing the abuses allegedly suffered by several figure skaters for years.

The resignation of Gailhaguet "is a first stage," Maracineanu said on Twitter, who said the investigations will go "to the end . " "We owe it to the victims," ​​the minister added.

"Clean the Federation"

"The entire Federation remains to be cleaned, where Beyer has all his friends. Those who have shut up and supported the system are still there," said former figure skater Sarah Abitbol, ​​the first to report the abuses, in statements to the weekly French "L'Obs".

Gailhaguet had been in charge of the French Ice Sports Federation for 20 years, but he was not in his position at the time when the sexual assaults allegedly occurred. However, several skaters accuse him of having protected Beyer for years and of allowing his return as a coach despite being aware of his practices.

The scandal has been a real earthquake in French ice skating. Abitbol was the first to break the silence with the publication of a publicly denounced book that was his coach, Gilles Beyer, of having raped and sexually assaulted when he was between 15 and 17 years old. The alleged sexual abuse would have occurred between 1990 and 1992.

Abitbol, ​​who was France's 10-time figure skating champion in pairs and won several medals in European and world tournaments in pairs, also denounced the federation's passivity in the face of abuse.

Despite uncovering the scandal, Abitbol has not finally filed a complaint with French justice against his former coach because the facts would have prescribed. However, she has been willing to testify when necessary.

The French Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation for rape and sexual assault to determine if there are other victims whose cases have not been prescribed.

Following Abitbol's complaint, several French skaters have accused three coaches of abusing them when they were teenagers. The alleged abuses would have occurred between the late 1970s and early 1990s.

For example, former skater Hélène Godard accuses Beyer of having had sex with her when she was 13 and 14 years old. Anne Bruneteaux and Béatrice Dumur accuse coach Michel Lotz of abusing them when they were 13 years old.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • France
  • Twitter
  • sports

Journal of a quarantine "I am not a virus"

More sport: Scandal of sexual abuse in French skating

Ligue 1 2019 - 2020Tuchel: "I don't think Mbappé takes advantage of this to leave the PSG"