The Minister of Sports and the Olympics, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, deemed "unacceptable" Friday on France Info the words of the president of the French Gymnastics Federation who displayed the day before in the National Assembly his powerlessness to sanction coaches involved in cases of abuse. Questioned by the commission of inquiry into dysfunctions in sports federations, James Blateau assured that he did not have the power to suspend coaches in question.
His federation is currently under investigation by the Sports Ministry for repeated and hurtful remarks about the weight of gymnasts as well as a slap inflicted on a minor in the middle of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The procedure follows the broadcast last May of a report by the television magazine Stade 2 based on the testimonies of six former gymnasts of the France team reporting physical and psychological abuse.
The leaders of the FFGym had been summoned to the Ministry of Sports in the wake of the broadcast of the report, and one of the coaches was suspended. On Thursday, James Blateau told MPs that he could do nothing about the case of the other coach in question, who is currently employed by a club in Rouen.
"A federation can sanction"
"The coach is not an employee of the Federation, he is an employee of a club which is itself affiliated to the Federation. But we have no control over his job, neither for his recruitment nor for his dismissal," he argued. "It's the president of the club, the employer, who decides. We're nothing at all in that. »
Comments that shocked the Minister of Sport. "It's not acceptable to hear that we can't do anything, absolutely not, since I remind you on the contrary that federations have extensive disciplinary power," she said on Friday. "They have the ability to sanction all their licensees, whether they are recruited by the clubs or by other affiliated bodies," she continued.
"A federation can sanction a club that fails to comply with its obligations," she said. "On the contrary, they have the arsenal of weapons that allow them to take responsibility." "In this gymnastics federation (we really have to) turn the page on a culture from another time in terms of high performance," the minister said.
For several years now, the world of gymnastics has been shaken by cases of sexual violence, as in the United States, or abuses related to training. Some gymnasts, mostly girls, say they are subjected to food deprivation.