High-level sport: these “cruel” methods that no longer work



En the space of just a few days, the facts seemed to telescope: at the end of April, the former European judo champion Patrick Roux published The reverse of our medals (Dunod editions), a book in which he brings together dozens of testimonies from judokas who are victims or witnesses of physical and psychological violence. At the beginning of May, Vincent Pateau, technical director of the France gymnastics center in Marseille, was sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 10,000 euros for moral harassment against three underage sportswomen he had trained.

“You’re a weakling, you’re a nobody.” They made me lose my self-esteem, “said Coline, one of the complainants, during the trial. At the same time – or almost –, a Mediapart investigation reveals that Stéphane Mongellas, coach of the Espoirs de judo pole in Marseille, is the subject of an investigation for reports of moral and physical violence.

Like the scandals that have erupted in recent years around sexual violence in sport, today tongues are loosened to denounce training methods that until now seemed inherent to high level. Overtraining worthy of the Soviet era, insults, humiliations, psychological influence, even physical violence. The testimonies accumulate, one more edifying than the other. In the summer of 2020, British gymnasts Rebecca and Elissa Downie, world medalists, thus evoke a “climate of fear, mental abuse” and “cruel normalized” behavior within their discipline. The following year, it was the turn of Hungarian swimming star Laszlo Cseh, two-time world champion and multiple Olympic medalist, to accuse his former coach Gyorgy Turi of methods amounting to “physical harassment” and ” psychological terror. »

“Monumental” damage

At the same time, other cases are shaking artistic swimming in Canada, skating in France and even rhythmic gymnastics in Switzerland. No discipline seems to escape it, no country is spared. “It’s the word that is freed, observes Patrick Roux. There are certainly fewer cases than twenty years ago, because there is a large concentration of reports between 2000 and 2012, but the revelations of skater Sarah Abitbol three years ago concerning the sexual violence she suffered blew the lid off! For Meriem Salmi, psychologist of many champions, including judo legend Teddy Riner, it is also – and above all – a matter of in-depth work which today is bearing fruit: “We have been warning people for years about these questions are not something that emerges suddenly. This was done in the shadows, as and when, ”explains the specialist. Result: “awakened” athletes who do not want to undergo what their elders have endured for a long time.

READ ALSOSarah Abitbol: “I was raped at 15 by my trainer” The consequences of these abusive practices can indeed be very serious. After more than 150 hours of interviews with injured athletes, Patrick Roux is convinced that harassment and brutality against minors can do as much damage as sexual assault. He remembers, for example, this young 15-year-old judoka seriously injured after being pushed – voluntarily – by a “completely crazy coach”. “His career ended that day,” he says. For him, this was the beginning of a descent into hell. Stopping sport, dropping out of school, psychological follow-up… A real disaster. “Or like this coach who had put in place a form of brutality orchestrated by some within the group itself, and this, for several months. “Some kids in the school setting take their lives for less,” he points out. In the privacy of her office, Meriem Salmi also observed the “sometimes monumental” damage caused by these methods. “We must be particularly vigilant in disciplines with early maturity,” she underlines. These are psychic break-ins, traumas, even though the brain is not yet formed. Before, when I said that, I was told that it was the high level, as if I knew nothing about it. But precisely, the harder it is, the more we are in the requirement and excellence, the more we must be benevolent. »

A systemic problem

Nevertheless, for some sports players, it is above all a question of a “ouin-ouin generation”, athletes who simply no longer accept the rules of the high level and the rigor that this implies. Leaders, coaches and even athletes, many still think that benevolence is not compatible with performance. Here we touch on beliefs and representations: to get there, you need blood, sweat and tears. Not completely wrong, right? “These are above all ready-made phrases, preconceived ideas that no one has checked,” retorts Patrick Roux. Many still convey this conception of training where the method must be very hard, in commando mode rather than informed by sports sciences. But putting crazy pressure on a young athlete, does it work? Jostling constantly, insulting, does it work? I think you can be an Olympic champion without sweat, blood and tears. “And for him as for the psychologist, the problem is systemic: “These coaches were trained by this system, supported by this system, explains Meriem Salmi. For years, no one said anything, we let them do it and now everyone is pointing the finger at them, it’s too easy! I have worked for thirty years with many different sports and I do not deal with monsters but with people who have themselves been athletes and trained in this way. This is why, in my opinion, the most important thing is to change the global system and not people. »

But if, little by little, the omerta is broken and speech is freed, it is also because the political and societal context lends itself more to it. Gone are the days when it was difficult, even dangerous, to speak. Both the public authorities and the federations have made significant efforts to raise awareness and inform about these issues. With Roxana Maracineanu at its head from 2018 to 2022 and now Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Ministry of Sports has shown a very firm intention not to let anything pass. Problem: for Patrick Roux, it is above all this “fear of the policeman” which today moves the lines in the absence of a real awareness. “Many sports players have not yet changed their software,” he regrets. If a bundle of actions much more powerful than what is currently done must be deployed to change the situation, the former judoka remains optimistic despite everything, everything is there to make it happen.




Source link -82