Does french figure skating have a culture of rape ? FFSG in the storm

[kirkbiggestfan]

This really puts Hubert's "headcase" reputation into perspective.

How could someone have a focused, stable, competitive mindset when they were abused by their coach and undermined by their federation?

I don't even know Hubert was able to survive in that environment for so long. She was coached by the 2 child molestors. When she finished her career, she had to go to Champigny with Didier's ex-wife. The mental abuse that was going there is legendary. Hubert was truly an extraordinary athlete. I am glad that she is now coaching. I have heard that she was amazing with the kids.

 

[Viscaro]

The French Minister said after their interview that she expected of DG “qu’il assume” which means that she expects him to hold himself responsible. To me she is publicly asking him to quit.

Edit : yep https://www.francetvinfo.fr/societe...de-la-federation-de-demissionner_3810911.html

 

[nimi]

Interview with Peizerat

Violences sexuelles dans le patinage : Didier Gailhaguet connaissait "les attitudes très discutables" de Gilles Beyer, selon Gwendal Peizerat

L'ex-patineur et candidat à la présidence de la Fédération française des sports de glace contre Didier Gailhaguet en 2014, affirme sur franceinfo que ce dernier avait eu connaissance du comportement de l'entraîneur Gilles Beyer, accusé de viol par la patineuse Sarah Abitbol.

www.francetvinfo.fr

a couple of machine translated excerpts:

Didier Gailhaguet is omnipotent in the federation. Everything goes through him. He knows everything. That he didn't know it went so far as to rape? Possible! Now he knew that Gilles Beyer had very questionable attitudes towards girls and girls, since the same Gilles Beyer, who had been a national executive, had been struck off by Minister Marie-George Buffet who had urged that the federation separates from Gilles and especially that he is no longer put in contact with young people because of his predatory side. Didier Gailhaguet brought Gilles Beyer back to this executive, and even appointed him responsible for the tour of the French team. So with us, on buses, in hotels, for more than a month, in virtual lying close, in absolute proximity. In 2011, Gilles Beyer is even "team leader" of the junior team that goes to South Korea for the World Junior Championships.

In your opinion, are there other skaters who do not dare to speak?

So, not necessarily rape, but the whole submerged part of the iceberg that we don't see and can't show to the general public, it's all the psychological violence that is done, not only to skaters, but also to speed skaters, to the bobsledders, to the curlers. Psychological violence, pressure, fear. But I go even further: the coaches, the judges! The judges go into competition with fear in the stomach, the fear of not meeting the expectations of Didier Gailhaguet, who tells them: "This is what you have to do".

Télé Loisirs asked for Candeloro's take on the situation:

Exclu. Philippe Candeloro enrage après l'affaire Sarah Abitbol : "J'en ai ras le cul que mon milieu soit sali !"

L'ancien patineur, idole de la France, actuellement en tournée avec "Holiday on ice, Supernova", a accepté de répondre à nos questions sur l'affaire d'agressions sexuelles qui secoue aujourd'hui le patinage artistique.

www.programme-tv.net

machine translated excerpts (emphasis mine):

A week before this case broke, [Sarah] had sent us a text message to all the elders to warn us that something was coming out and that when the time came, we had to be there to support her. That's what I'm doing today. If Sarah can become the trigger for a profound change within the federation, that would be great.

Today, the minister does not have the power to fire the President of the Federation but simply to push him to resign. Which he'll never do! Faced with such a man, even we elders we all ended up throwing in the towel because he always has a head start... What Ms. Maracineanu should do is to take away from the federation the accreditation that empowers France to organize figure skating events or to represent our country in international competitions. But that's never going to happen. Because we're in the middle of a competition season. Yet it will clean up everything and we would put in place a new team, determined to take good care of our sport.

 

[Nmsis]

Maracineanu has asked for Gailhaguet's résignation. She has given him 2 weeks
She has started the withdrawal of the delegation given by the ministry.

The conseil fédéral has a knife on its throat to vote a "motion de censure" to revoke Gailhaguet.

Administrative inquiries are going to be launched by the ministre.
Maracineanu goes for the punch on the gut.
Nuclear option on its way.

 

[nimi]

Maracineanu has asked for Gailhaguet's résignation. She has given him 2 weeks
She has started the withdrawal of the delegation given by the ministry.

The conseil fédéral has a knife on its throat to vote a "motion de censure" to revoke Gailhaguet.

Administrative inquiries are going to be launched by the ministre.
Maracineanu goes for the punch on the gut.
Nuclear option on its way.

I really hope she'll follow through (and prove Candeloro wrong). And that this time Gailhaguet won't come back (which was Peizerat's concern in the interview I posted: "Didier Gailhaguet has already been forced to resign. It's happened before. He was forced to resign in 2004. Now, the minister is not going to make him ineligible. The only ones who can prevent his return, because he has already returned several times, are the club presidents.")

Video clip of Maracineanu's announcement & some additional info in this thread:

Naa on Twitter

“The Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, has asked Didier Gailhaguet to resign from his position & announced a withdrawal of the state delegation from the FFSG (it sounds like a decertification/defunding of the FFSG but I'm not familiar with the term) #SkatingSurvivors https://t.co/q1TtcYuo8I”

twitter.com

 

[MsZem]

What will all this mean for active skaters and coaches who weren't complicit? Will things finally get better?

 

[victorskid]

There is now a short English article: https://apnews.com/8ddd551c610f501d16dcee8f7980779f

 

[nimi]

Um...

Naa 🔜 Worlds on Twitter

“Didier Gailhaguet is refusing to resign from his position as president of the FFSG #SkatingSurvivors https://t.co/zXl5Thwk4f”

twitter.com

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Anybody got more/better info?

ETA: Correction, apparently Didier didn't refuse to resign, he refused to answer whether he'll resign

Naa on Twitter

“Correction: he hasn't refused to resign - he refused to answer the question, said he will "think about all of this" and he said he will hold a press conference on Wednesday to discuss things further #SkatingSurvivors https://t.co/xukZb6bkhG”

twitter.com

 

[Orm Irian]

What will all this mean for active skaters and coaches who weren't complicit? Will things finally get better?

I think it may get worse before it gets better, because funding etc will be up in the air for a bit, but things should end up being better in the end. And not just for skaters but for all the sports covered by the FFSG, most of which it seems DG doesn't care about one bit.

 

[PRlady]

Boy am I feeling badly for Aymoz and P/C, both of whom are possible/lock medal contenders in Montreal. I wonder if the Sports Minister will wait to strip the Federation of its official status until after Montreal.

 

[barbarafan]

I think it may get worse before it gets better, because funding etc will be up in the air for a bit, but things should end up being better in the end. And not just for skaters but for all the sports covered by the FFSG, most of which it seems DG doesn't care about one bit.

That is what I am afraid of- the funding....Are they allowed to have sponsors? Not sure what rules are in France. Maybe some companies will step forward while they get their ducks in a row.

 

[LeafOnTheWind]

I would feel horrible for the innocent skaters but I kind of want the message sent that nothing is more important than protecting victims.

 

[chantilly]

This is such a horrible shitstorm. Especially since France has slowly been rebuilding itself as a top skating nation again.

I wonder if all this has been brewing for a while and also contributed to Papadakis’ mental health.

I’m fairly certain the team will get to worlds somehow. I can imagine crowd funding or private funding will happen. But god what a horrible and sad mess.

 

[MsZem]

I would feel horrible for the innocent skaters but I kind of want the message sent that nothing is more important than protecting victims.

What if some of the current skaters are also victims? I wouldn't be at all surprised. The message has to be that sports can and must exist without abuse; is the right approach to shut everything down until they figure out the best way forward? I don't have an answer to this. The athletes have been failed by too many people.

It's heartening to see so many skaters supporting Sarah Abitbol. I wish she'd had this sort of support when she needed it most...

 

[SandraMGfan]

Let’s see how this develops this week. But I think it could happen.
France is 4 years away from hosting the Olympic Games and will need to show that they don’t support this behaviour.

 

[Orm Irian]

Let’s see how this develops this week. But I think it could happen.
France is 4 years away from hosting the Olympic Games and will need to show that they don’t support this behaviour.

Oh, good point. And doesn't France have a bid in for the Worlds immediately after the next Games, too?

Thanks so much for all your coverage of this, Nmsis and nimi. You've made a complex legal situation much easier to understand!

 

[clairecloutier]

Oh, good point. And doesn't France have a bid in for the Worlds immediately after the next Games, too?

I don't think it's a bid. I think they were awarded the Worlds after Stockholm. 2022. (Can anyone confirm?)

This is all so , and I just pray it ends with DG's permanent ouster from the sport in France. I mean we all knew he was bad news, but I had no idea it was THIS bad and that he'd covered up long-term sexual/psychological abuse by multiple coaches.

Scary to think that this man was actually considered a semi-serious contender for ISU President in the last election.

 

[ostile17]

Shoma Uno left his coach for such abuse but he was free to do so. Lambiel is his coach now, and look at the much better result.

What? Where is this info from?

 

[Orm Irian]

What? Where is this info from?

Indeed! Last I heard he was gently booted out the door by his former coach because she felt she'd reached the limits of what she could do for him?

 

[nimi]

Oh no, seems like Joubert did a radio interview where he comes across as defending Didier, who is "a person I really like," "he has always supported me (...) he was like a second father"...

Violences sexuelles dans le patinage : pour Brian Joubert, il ne faut pas "mettre sur le dos" de Gailhaguet des faits "que d’autres ont pu commettre"

Invité lundi d'Europe 1, l'ancien patineur artistique Brian Joubert est revenu sur les révélations d’agressions sexuelles qui secouent le milieu du patinage. "Si tout le monde était au courant à l'époque, pourquoi rien n'a été fait ?", interroge le champion du monde 2007.

www.europe1.fr

But I guess this just shows what a master manipulator and divide et impera kind of guy Didier is...


ETA: Didier complains the minister didn't listen to him. Poor Didier, the real victim here, really https://www.ledauphine.com/sport/20...s-sports-demande-a-gailhaguet-de-demissionner

"J'ai commis des erreurs, pas des fautes", s'est défendu Didier Gailhaguet.

"Elle (la ministre) ne m’a pas écouté, et surtout ne m’a pas entendu"

 

[Alli84]

What the hell is this?

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Figure skating is a big family... Gilles Beyer and Didier Gailhaguet even shared two girlfriends.

https://www.rtl.fr/sport/autres-spo...ailhaguet-pouvait-il-ne-pas-savoir-7800018668

Les deux hommes se connaissent depuis toujours. Ils ont d'abord été patineurs à la même époque, avant de devenir entraîneur. Ensuite, Didier Gailhaguet a épousé Annick Dumont, l'ancienne compagne de... Gilles Beyer, et aujourd'hui il est très proche de Katia Krier, la directrice des équipes de France, qui est aussi l'ex femme de... Gilles Beyer.
=
Then, Didier Gailhaguet married Annick Dumont, Gilles Beyer's former gf, and nowadays he's very close to Katia Krier, aka... Gilles Beyer's ex-wife.

Did those two dudes swap girlfriends not just once, but twice?!

 

[MsZem]

Oh no, seems like Joubert did a radio interview where he comes across as defending Didier, who is "a person I really like," "he has always supported me (...) he was like a second father"...

Violences sexuelles dans le patinage : pour Brian Joubert, il ne faut pas "mettre sur le dos" de Gailhaguet des faits "que d’autres ont pu commettre"

Invité lundi d'Europe 1, l'ancien patineur artistique Brian Joubert est revenu sur les révélations d’agressions sexuelles qui secouent le milieu du patinage. "Si tout le monde était au courant à l'époque, pourquoi rien n'a été fait ?", interroge le champion du monde 2007.

www.europe1.fr

But I guess this just shows what a master manipulator and divide et impero kind of guy Didier is...

This is a really bad take. I'm sure Joubert has benefited from DG's support over the years, but the only appropriate response here is one of unequivocal support for the survivors. DG at the very least was unaware that he was running a system in which sexual abuse was rampant. When that's the highly unlikely best-case scenario, nobody should be speaking favorably about him.

 

[briancoogaert]

Joubert today : he doesn't understand, because Gailhaguet is fantastic, like a second father... etc...
Amazing :

Violences sexuelles : "Si tout le monde était au courant, pourquoi rien n'a été fait ?", s'interr…

Ce lundi, Nathalie Levy reçoit Brian Joubert, ancien champion du monde de patinage artistique, pour évoquer les révélations d’agressions sexuelles qui secoue...

www.youtube.com

 

[Vagabond]

Didier Gailhaguet: "J'ai commis des erreurs, pas des fautes"

VIDÉO - Didier Gailhaguet, le président de la Fédération française des sports de glace, réagit après que la ministre des Sports a demandé ce lundi sa démission.

www.bfmtv.com

Rough translation:

And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain

Regrets I've had a few
But then again too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way
Yes, it was my way

 

[Primorskaya]

Boy am I feeling badly for Aymoz and P/C, both of whom are possible/lock medal contenders in Montreal. I wonder if the Sports Minister will wait to strip the Federation of its official status until after Montreal.

That would be the reasonable option. The end of the season is very close, and that way skaters wouldn't be penalised.

 

[Orm Irian]

I'm sure Joubert has benefited from DG's support over the years

Actually, the reason this seems really weird to me is I'm pretty sure I remember that DG took against Joubert and tried to derail his career at least once! But abusers groom their victims, and DG may never have committed a sexual assault but he's been committing psychological warfare against French skaters for years and that's its own kind of abuse (I'll never forget that video clip where P/C found out that he had banned their coach from going to Euros with them in their first year as Seniors...they looked so defeated, so early on in their careers, it was obvious they knew exactly what was happening and why). So who knows what the situation looks like from Joubert's vantage point? He may be seeing what DG wants him to see.

ETA: Just seen this: there's apparently a possibility for French skaters to go to Worlds under the aegis of the French Olympic Committee, but if they do it will be without any Federation support (i.e. funding and so on, I presume).

 

[Frau Muller]

Good grief. So no French delegation at the next World’s...maybe?

 

[briancoogaert]

Actually, the reason this seems really weird to me is I'm pretty sure I remember that DG took against Joubert and tried to derail his career at least once! But abusers groom their victims, and DG may never have committed a sexual assault but he's been committing psychological warfare against French skaters for years and that's its own kind of abuse (I'll never forget that video clip where P/C found out that he had banned their coach from going to Euros with them in their first year as Seniors...they looked so defeated, so early on in their careers, it was obvious they knew exactly what was happening and why). So who knows what the situation looks like from Joubert's vantage point? He may be seeing what DG wants him to see.

I guess actually,Joubert takes advantage of Gailhaguet to destroy his previous Skating club in Poitiers and to be the only club in that rink.

 

[MsZem]

Actually, the reason this seems really weird to me is I'm pretty sure I remember that DG took against Joubert and tried to derail his career at least once! But abusers groom their victims, and DG may never have committed a sexual assault but he's been committing psychological warfare against French skaters for years and that's its own kind of abuse (I'll never forget that video clip where P/C found out that he had banned their coach from going to Euros with them in their first year as Seniors...they looked so defeated, so early on in their careers, it was obvious they knew exactly what was happening and why). So who knows what the situation looks like from Joubert's vantage point? He may be seeing what DG wants him to see.

The 2013 Grand Prix, when Joubert didn't go to the Masters and had his Skate America assignment yanked by the federation?

That's minor compared to what other skaters have dealt with, but I have no doubt that DG knew how to manipulate Joubert - and others - to achieve his ends.

 

[Frau Muller]

Didier Gailhaguet: "J'ai commis des erreurs, pas des fautes"

VIDÉO - Didier Gailhaguet, le président de la Fédération française des sports de glace, réagit après que la ministre des Sports a demandé ce lundi sa démission.

www.bfmtv.com

Rough translation:

And now the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case of which I'm certain

Regrets I've had a few
But then again too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way
Yes, it was my way

Don’t be so sure. We’ve thought he was gone before!