It was just over a year ago. January 29, 2020, on the occasion of the release of his book Such a long silence, Sarah Abitbol broke the secret in the columns of The Obs. The figure skating champion then revealed that she had been raped by her coach at the age of 15. A testimony that caused a real explosion in the world of sport, prompting many young women to break the generally established silence around these attacks. Thursday January 21, 2021, always with The ObsSarah Abitbol went back to speaking out and has spoken about how the situation has developed since. She particularly regrets that the Ice Sports Federation – led since March 2020 by Nathalie Péchalat – has done nothing to improve matters. The 45-year-old skater tried to “get closer to the new President ”.
“The cleaning was not done internally "
“I expected more support from the new Federation, and some respect for what I did, for free speech, because it took a lot of courage to do it ", says Sarah Abitbol. She notably had Nathalie Péchalat on the phone, and made several proposals for collaboration. “Unfortunately, everything was refused ”, she reveals. The ice rink star has the feeling that Jean Dujardin's partner and his team “want to move on ”, as if she had “Dirty figure skating by talking about rapes”. His own club, which was therefore that of his attacker, he “refuses access to the ice rink ".
The French champion says that “cleaning has not been done internally” and "black sheep are still there ”. For Sarah Abitbol, Nathalie Péchalat urgently decides to act. She also believes that the president of the Ice Sports Federation “should remember, however, that she was elected through free speech ". Indeed, the former skater was appointed head of the Olympic institution after the resignation of her predecessor Didier Gailhaguet following the revelations of sexual assault. His election had caused quite a stir at the time. For the moment, Nathalie Péchalat has not reacted to Sarah Abitbol's statements.
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