SARAH ABITBOL OR BREAKING OMERTA IN SPORT ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE

At the time, explains Sarah Abitbol to L'Obs, in an interview, she is a young sportswoman on a figure skating course for a few weeks at La Roche-sur-Yon.

In her story, she says that her trainer at the time, whom she named “Mr. O.”, takes advantage of her position to assault her sexually and rape her several times.

She recounts the ordeal experienced at the time and the impact on her life today.

“I am a handicapped person of life, walled in anxiety. In my head, I am a prey. At 15, I slept outside my home, I was vulnerable, and you benefited from it, "she writes, addressing directly to the one she calls" Monsieur O. ", in reality Gilles Beyer.

At the time, Sarah Abitbol was still sleeping with her stuffed animals. She remains silent until she is a medalist.

The European multi-medalist, who also spoke a second time at the microphone of France Inter, testified this Thursday, January 30, to "traumatic amnesia" which she then experienced.

For more than ten years, Sarah Abitbol had indeed no memory of the events which took place between her 15 and 17 years and about which she confided for a long time to L'Obs, namely, the rapes that she would have suffered several times from her trainer, Gilles Beyer. “I had traumatic amnesia. It stayed in a corner of my brain, the brain protects itself from the miseries of childhood and it was so strong, so repulsive, in fact, that the brain put it aside, and for more than ten years, actually , I completely forgot about this event ”, she underlines.

Until 2002, on the eve of the launch of the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the champion does not remember anything. She was then 26 years old. At that time, it ruptures the Achilles tendons. She has a flash: “The body spoke first, because having a rupture of the Achilles tendons at 24 hours from the Olympic Games, on site, there is nothing worse for a top athlete. I did not understand what was happening to me ”.

Sarah Abitbol ends her professional career at 28 years old and tries for the first time to alert the highest French Sport authorities on the actions of “Monsieur O.” and on sexual and gender-based violence in figure skating. The Minister of Sports at the time replied that there is "a file" about this coach who has since climbed the ranks of the federation, but that he must "close his eyes".

Today, Sarah Abitbol continues her work as a director and skater, while fighting her trauma. Two years after the beginnings of the #MeToo movement, she denounced the “omerta” that reigns in sport in her book. A testimony whose facts are prescribed, but which it delivers to "break the silence". "If you lasted so long, Mr. O., it's because everything around you allowed it.

Politicians have closed their eyes, leaders have kept you in place, coaches have been silent so as not to risk being fired or to protect their own turpitudes. Women coaches put a handkerchief on the crimes of their spouses, parents were blinded by their desire to see their children succeed, students themselves are afraid of being discriminated against if they spoke. Everyone, at their level, has nurtured and continues to nurture crime, ”writes the champion in her book. The woman who was ten times champion of France hopes today that her testimony will encourage other athletes to confide in what they have suffered.

Other former skaters are making similar accusations against Beyer, published Wednesday in L'Equipe and L'Obs. Beyer disputes the facts related.

Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu summoned the president of the Ice Sports Federation, Didier Gailhaguet, Thursday morning to have "explanations."