It is a harsh, poignant, chilling testimony.
But so necessary.
Now 58 years old, Paoline Ekambi, great lady of French basketball in the 1980s and 1990s, reveals in a long interview with L'Equipe that she was abused by her father, aged 14 to 17.
"I was not attacked, I was raped, I am not afraid to put words on what I lived", she affirms.
After the shock wave caused by the release of Camille Kouchner's book (
"La Familia grande", in which the author recounts the acts of incest suffered by her brother by their stepfather, Olivier Duhamel, Editor's note
), the he former captain of the France team (254 caps) is the first personality in the sports world to speak of incest.
She hesitated to file a complaint
Her ordeal began when she was 14 years old.
She then boarded at Insep, the school of French sports champions.
“I would come home on weekends, my father would come and pick me up.
One morning ... My room was opposite my parents'.
I knew all the noises at home, except this one, that of my door which opens.
I had my back to the door ... Since then, I always sleep facing the door, and when I am at a restaurant, or when I sit down somewhere, there is always a wall behind me.
So that I can have full control.
He entered.
I felt like an anguish.
He told me that I had never kissed him.
I turned my head, and I don't know how, his mouth touched mine… "
Despite his pleas for help, his mother does not react.
One evening, swollen after having been severely beaten by this father, who is now deceased, she runs away, hesitating to lodge a complaint.
“On the road, we (
she and one of her trainers, editor's note
) passed in front of a police station.
I asked that we stop.
I looked at the facade.
I thought of my four brothers, at the DDASS (Departmental Directorate of Health and Social Affairs), I wondered what would become of them if I did that.
I imagined my father behind bars.
And that shocked me.
"
And was rebuilt thanks to sport
Paoline Ekambi also realizes that society is probably not ready to face this reality which breaks children.
"I said to myself: the cops are not going to believe me, in the family they are all going to be mad at me.
Basketball and coaches will be his lifeline.
His escape route.
“I found in sport what I had lost, another family.
Also with a feminine universe, because I lived in a rather masculine universe.
All of a sudden I found myself building my identity as a woman.
Sport has helped me channel my rage a lot more.
"
Paoline Ekambi speaks today to "challenge society, talk to other victims, give them hope that we can get out of it".
Another match, a fight, which she hopes to win too.