On Sunday, during a large format broadcast on the Stade 2 program on France 3, former gymnasts from the France team denounced acts of harassment and abuse. Present on the set, the Minister of Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera immediately announced that an investigation would be opened to shed light on the facts revealed.
“We were only performance objects, we didn’t care about our health”, “When are you going to stop growing? “, “You are only truckers”, a slap “in the head coming from nowhere”, “big cow”… Former gymnasts from the France team speak, the Minister of Sports reacts immediately. After athletes who had passed through the French gymnastics team (Valentine Sabatou, Clara Della Vedova, Camille Bahl, Marine Petit, etc.) denounced this Sunday in the context of a subject proposed by the Stade 2 program on France 3 des facts of harassment but also mistreatment of the time when the witnesses in question defended the colors of the Blue, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, discovering there like many people – “I did not know these elements at all” – the suffering endured at the time by these young girls, announced on the set after the broadcast of these revelations against a background of physical and psychological violence that an investigation had been opened. “The report has been made, we will open an investigation tomorrow morning (Monday) and I will summon the president of the French Gymnasium Federation and his DTN to understand what is going on (…) accentuate the action plans and see with these six young women how to help them (…) We have to pass this stage and be able to better understand, act and develop the culture of performance in a whole of the discipline (…) We are in the action, it is that which is important, because it is not possible to let coaches who mix everything up: the requirement with violence, discipline with mistreatment, it is just not acceptable, ”declared the minister, in shock. .
Oudéa-Castera: “On this type of violence, there is zero tolerance”
“We can only be devastated by what we see there. I first want to emphasize the courage there, they do it more at a time when they are trying to rebuild themselves and to help ensure that this does not happen again for others. To see this suffering is overwhelming. In addition, seeing this dimension of insults to their bodies when we know how much the body for a young girl who grows and develops is something completely central. “We must avoid making generalizations, because there are also a lot of coaches and educators who do their job very well in the gym”, however added the former tennis player, insisting on the fact that “There is zero tolerance for this type of violence. “A” capital message “in the eyes of the person concerned. “Especially with the Olympic Games approaching. »
