- Joined
- Feb 14, 2018
Since yesterday evening, French news outlets have started to publish stories of sexual abuse suffered by former athletes in several sports, including figure skating. This is big enough that it made the front page of the biggest sport newspaper L'équipe (https://twitter.com/lequipe/status/1222404024504344577). In parallel, Sarah Abitbol, former World medalist in Pairs is releasing a book "Un si long silence" (Such a long silence) today telling the story of her abuse.
Here is a summary of the facts (I am not giving all the details written in the French press but it is still horrible, so don't read it if you feel it's too much) :
-> Sarah Abitbol has been abused and raped repeatedly by her coach Gilles Beyer between age 15 and 17.
-> Hélène Godard also has been raped twice by Gilles Beyer between age 13 and 14. She has then been abused by Jean-Roland Racle (7 times French champion) when she was living at his place between age 15 and 16. He was more than 30 years old at that time.
-> Anne Bruneteaux and Béatrice Dumur accuse Michel Lotz of abusing them when they were 13 and he was training them at the Asnières skating club.
-> An enquiry was led by the French Ministry of Sports on Gilles Beyer at the beginning of 2000s and concluded that he should leave his function as a coach of the French team. He has however continued to be involved in the French club Les Français Volants where he is still general manager as of today. He also manages the French team gala tour.
Here are a few good news to balance things a bit:
-> the whole thing is very well covered in the French news outlets, both the sport news and the general media (newspaper, TV, radio).
-> Didier Gaillaguet has been summoned by the French Ministry of Sport, it is very likely he will have to resign (https://twitter.com/East_From_Eden/status/1222635190671093760).
I hope this is a good summary, it is quite hard to gather everything that is coming out in the news today. I think there will be more soon. This twitter account translated a lot a things: https://twitter.com/East_From_Eden
Here is a summary of the facts (I am not giving all the details written in the French press but it is still horrible, so don't read it if you feel it's too much) :
-> Sarah Abitbol has been abused and raped repeatedly by her coach Gilles Beyer between age 15 and 17.
-> Hélène Godard also has been raped twice by Gilles Beyer between age 13 and 14. She has then been abused by Jean-Roland Racle (7 times French champion) when she was living at his place between age 15 and 16. He was more than 30 years old at that time.
-> Anne Bruneteaux and Béatrice Dumur accuse Michel Lotz of abusing them when they were 13 and he was training them at the Asnières skating club.
-> An enquiry was led by the French Ministry of Sports on Gilles Beyer at the beginning of 2000s and concluded that he should leave his function as a coach of the French team. He has however continued to be involved in the French club Les Français Volants where he is still general manager as of today. He also manages the French team gala tour.
Here are a few good news to balance things a bit:
-> the whole thing is very well covered in the French news outlets, both the sport news and the general media (newspaper, TV, radio).
-> Didier Gaillaguet has been summoned by the French Ministry of Sport, it is very likely he will have to resign (https://twitter.com/East_From_Eden/status/1222635190671093760).
I hope this is a good summary, it is quite hard to gather everything that is coming out in the news today. I think there will be more soon. This twitter account translated a lot a things: https://twitter.com/East_From_Eden