Sport, synonymous with well-being and fulfilment, can sometimes cause great damage. According to the French Ministry of Sports, 610 cases have been reported to the unit which deals with the problem of sexual violence in sport since its establishment in 2020.
“ The time of silence is over “Welcomed this Wednesday March 9 Roxana Maracineanu, in front of some of the sportswomen victims of violence in the past: the skater Sarah Abitbol, the tennis player Isabelle Demongeot, or the athlete Catherine Moyon de Baecque.
According to the ministerial unit which identifies sexual violence in sport, 84% of victims are minors. 73% of cases relate to acts committed over the past 10 years and 107 cases even relate to the 2020-2021 sports season. The people denounced are paid educators, volunteers and 36 had the status of state agent. A total of 655 people are implicated, 97% of whom are men. The majority of sports federations are concerned. Currently, 449 files are closed while 206 investigations are ongoing. The observation is there, sexual violence in sport exists. The implementation of the integrity control of volunteers gradually since September 2021 has made it possible to control 341,000 volunteers from 68 federations. These checks resulted in 17 measures of incapacity to exercise as a sports educator or operator.
Aware, more and more players are getting involved in the field
Currently, a former football coach in amateur clubs in the Paris region is on trial before the Paris Assize Court for the rape and sexual assault of a dozen minors, to whom he dangled a professional career. The man is notably accused of rape and sexual assault by person in authority “on minors under 15 and attempts, ” sexual proposals by electronic means ” and “ corruption of minors on 13 young players he trained in clubs in the Paris region between 2003 and 2018. The teenagers were mostly under 15 at the time of the events. Nine are involved in acts of rape or sexual assault. The French Football League now helps its players to detect warning signs and adopt good behavior. Nearly 300 players, leaders and educators were made aware.
The French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) is committed to the fight against all forms of violence and discrimination in sport with the official launch, on January 18, 2022, of a dedicated commission. The Commission for the Fight against Sexual Violence and Discrimination in Sport of the CNOSF will work during the Olympiad to support the actors of the sports movement in the fight against this violence, in conjunction with the public authorities (Ministry of National Education , Ministry in charge of Sports, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Solidarity and Health, etc. and the judicial authorities.
Sarah Abitbol leads the way
In June 2021, the Ministry of Sports launched a sexual violence prevention plan accompanied by an awareness kit for supervisors, educators, volunteers and families. In November 2017, the actors in the field were taken aback by the positive picture painted by Laura Flessel, then Minister of Sports in the government of Édouard Philippe, who assured that ” there is no omerta in sport “. A year after the interview with Laura Flessel, Roxana Maracineanu, who succeeded her at the Ministry of Sports, had taken the opposite view, using the word omerta on purpose and recognizing the risks specific to sport.
Since then, the publication of the book by Sarah Abitbolfigure skating champion, who denounced the violence she had suffered from her ex-coach in January 2020, the subject of sexual violence in sport is no longer taboo. Such a long silence had made French institutions react in the context of the #MeToo movement, to free speech for victims of sexual violence. It will remain as the first major testimony of sexual violence in the sports world.
On the planet, one athlete in seven would be the victim of a form of sexual violence before the age of 18, regardless of the level of competition and the country where these facts are deplored. “ My name is Simone Biles, and I am a survivor of sexual violence. I blame Larry Nassar and I blame the system that enabled and perpetrated these abuses, the United States Gymnastics Federation and the United States Olympic Committee “, said in 2021 the one who is considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time. In 2018, the American champion revealed that she had been the victim of Larry Nassar, a former doctor for the American national women’s gymnastics team convicted of pedophilia. Larry Nassar is said to have committed sexual assaults for no less than twenty years.