The worst face of sport

In the last two years, two coaches have been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for sexual abuse of minors.

Miguel Ángel Millán, an athletics coach, abused two minor athletes he trained in Tenerife and eleven more who testified as victim-witnesses in the trial (among them the Olympic runner-up in Barcelona 92, Antonio Peñalver).

They could not report because the crimes had prescribed, but their testimony was essential.

Millán was sentenced in February 2019. Carlos Franch, an artistic gymnastics coach from Betxí, a small town in the province of Castellón, also abused 12 gymnasts for more than two decades, some under the age of 13.

Judgment was passed at the end of November.

They are both in jail.

Both used their power to commit such actions for years and years: in silence and with the indifference of the federations.

Can these two historic sentences in such a short time mark a change in Spanish sport?

Are athletes losing their fear of reporting?

Carolina Lluch is a prosecutor for minors in the Provincial Court of Castellón, in the last ten years she has been in charge of formulating accusations in several sexual abuse procedures and is the one who directed the accusation against Franch.

“I want to think and I want to believe that yes, that these two sentences and the efforts of those girls and boys are worth something.

The great success of this procedure, in addition to the conviction, is: first that the victims have been listened to and then make visible what is happening in sport, an area that we consider super healthy and that, unfortunately, sometimes is not. it is.

It is sad and outrageous that these things come out in sport because sport is solidarity, camaraderie… ”, he explains in a telephone conversation.

Just as uncomfortable is, for example, when abuses by the Church are made public.

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“Making it visible and disseminating is extremely important because there are things that society has to know: it has to know that it is being reported.

Not only does the victim have to know, but also the aggressors.

They have to know that the prosecution exists, that the convictions exist and that if you sexually abuse minors you can be sentenced to 15 and a half years in prison.

You have to be blunt, we can't go over these things ”, adds Lluch.

This prosecutor is the mother of two athletic children and remembers how in the morning she attended the statements of the minors who had been abused at the Betxí Gymnastic Club and in the afternoon she took her children to judo.

The investigation of the process to Carlos Franch was preceded by two more cases of abuse of minors: girls who resided in protection centers and were captured by older people to sexually abuse them and minors with criminal records who suffered abuse by a police officer.

All three have been convicted and the accused are in prison.

Lluch acknowledges that there is an increase in complaints.

“Not because there are more crimes because, unfortunately, they are committed in the shadows, but because minors are more aware that they can ask for and receive protection.

There is a greater awareness and a greater awareness on the part of society ”.

From 641 to 1,833 criminal proceedings in five children

For 2020 there is still no data that reflects this increase in complaints because the annual report of the State Attorney General's Office is currently being prepared.

The latest, however, published in the autumn, includes a considerable increase in procedures for sexual abuse of minors (although it does not distinguish in which areas).

In 2019 there were 1,833, compared to 1,185 in 2018, 935 in 2017, 795 in 2016, 664 in 2015 and 641 in 2014. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), one in five minors suffers sexual abuse before turning 17 years old.

Sport is no stranger to that.

For each procedure that is instructed there are, unfortunately, many others that do not because the victims do not dare to report.

And others who cannot even verbalize it because they are not even aware that they are suffering from it.

Sexual abuse is a crime that is committed in the shadows, under the law of silence and emotional blackmail.

Conditions that have their breeding ground in sports.

“Especially when there is an asymmetry of power because the sporting achievements of the kids depend on the coaches.

And those who abuse know it and use threat and silence.

For every girl who speaks or denounces there are many others who do not, we do not know many things that happen in clubs, in high-performance and technification centers.

We are much more aware of gender violence now, if there is a neighbor who exercises violence against his wife, we call.

We know we have to call.

But in sport, no, it takes a lot of work for us.

You don't want to see the bad in sport, you don't want to see that it is a propitious terrain for abuse ... and if you don't talk about abuse;

Well, there are no abuses ”, reflects Ana Arazo, an expert psychologist in women and professional sports and in the psychosocial approach to sexual violence.

Arazo knows the environment of the High Performance Centers because he worked in them.

María Martínez, a psychologist who works with elite athletes (Carolina Marín among others, in addition to triathletes, from the archery team, basketball, surfing) says that, indeed, it is a topic that is rarely talked about.

“It is something that is very difficult to address and is not addressed unless there is suspicion of something.

It is even difficult to empathize with the victims because it is almost impossible for the mind to think about the amount of damage that could be suffered by living in this situation ”, he explains.

Lluch, who has dealt with cases of sexual abuse of minors from different fields, says that what has attracted his attention the most about sexual abuse in sports is the excess, perhaps, of confidence.

“In the previous proceedings (that of the girls from the juvenile centers or the child victims of the police officer) we have no doubts that the victims, in addition to being minors, were in a situation of vulnerability or risk.

On the other hand, in sports it is more difficult to think that these circumstances are the same.

We must not forget that these crimes affect any social class, any cultural level and any person.

The father or mother who takes their children to a sports club understands that the values ​​of sport are going to be above all;

and, in this case, it has not been like that ”, he analyzes.

She, who claims that the closed door has never been found in her children's training room, says that doors and windows have to be opened wide.

Something so simple that, in some pavilions –such as the gymnastics hall at CAR in Madrid, for example– it does not happen.

The tutor who resides with the gymnasts in the Blume, without going any further, does not have access.

“If they are not doing anything wrong, the doors have to be open to everyone.

And if not, we put a camera and record the training sessions every day.

Let's see if anyone dares to tell a child: 'you are a cow poop, you are shit, I am going to ruin your life, I am a mirror and it bounces, it bounces ", argues the prosecutor.

Phrases that the gymnasts of Betxì, for example, heard every other day.

"Sport does not look"

“The problem is that coaches only see athletes, soccer players, gymnasts, swimmers… and they don't.

They are boys and girls who play sports and have a lot of areas of development;

either in a high-performance center or in the village team.

If we only see them like this, we will only use that profile and when it does not serve us, we will discard them.

There are two phrases that are repeated the most in sport and that drive me crazy: nothing has ever happened and we have always done it that way.

It is not that in sport people look the other way on the issue of abuse, it is that they do not look directly, there is no such look, ”says Iñaki Alonso, head of child protection at Athletic (a pioneering club in hiring a protection delegate).

Lonso has worked all her life on children's rights leading projects in Save The Children, UNICEF and UNHCR and she believes that we are still in a very early stage in making sports environments free from abuse.

“Protecting does not mean overprotecting.

It means having a space of openness, trust and freedom to expose problems, solve them and give solutions to children.

Explain decisions to them that sometimes are not going to be completely aligned with their wishes, ”he insists.

After Carlos Franch was sentenced, two rhythmic gymnasts from the CAR of León denounced humiliating treatment and made it public.

A Valencia youth squad, also a minor, has denounced Pedro Cortés, former president of the club, for having allegedly abused him.

Taking the step is not easy.

“Minors have come to my office to tell me about abuses, but then they have not wanted to report them.

Because they are ashamed, they disgust themselves.

And the worst: they think who is going to believe me that I am a baby? ”, Lluch says.

And remember the cries of the Betxì victims that they reported when they were older.

"Carolina is all my fault, if I had reported, this would not have happened," he says they repeated.

Guilt and shame

María Martínez, sports psychologist, corroborates how complicated is the internal process that victims of sexual abuse deal with.

"The mind is prepared to survive and to protect us from dangers, damage and suffering and when we experience situations of this type and continued over time, the mind tends to close, park.

You know you are living it, but you don't even feel capable of thinking about it;

far from talking about it.

You live it and you suffer it and you find some survival mechanism at that moment and you live with the aggressor in an intimidating relationship.

Your worth is conditioned on this person paying attention to you and when they pay attention to you, they hurt you.

It is a very difficult circle.

When the victim becomes aware of it, he is ashamed;

and when you feel ashamed, the last thing you want is to tell it, you want the earth to swallow you, ”he describes.

The forceful and historic sentences to Millán and Franch have made it clear that crimes of sexual abuse do not go unpunished in sports either.

What can be done to eradicate the root problem and make sport a demanding but healthy space free of abuse?

“The protocols work if they are applied;

we must train in sexual education and protection.

If you have children who know that their body is not touched and with sexual abuse prevention tools, another rooster would sing.

We would reduce the percentage of abused because they would speak earlier, because parents would be more attentive, because there would be more pending and concerned institutions.

It is a systemic problem in which we all have to do our bit, ”says Arazo.

Iñaki Alonso agrees.

“What is missing is a commitment and a real responsibility on the part of the agents who work in the world of grassroots sport to ensure the well-being of boys and girls.

I am very radical, but I believe that all the people who move around grassroots sport at any level, competitive or neighborhood, have to have a minimum training in prevention ”.

Lluch acknowledges that it is everyone's job.

“Of course, the police forces were very hurt to see that there was a policeman who had abused minors.

Of course, the autonomous administration of the Valencian Community was hurt to learn that there were men who were going to the centers to recruit girls.

But what is happening now?

That before any type of strange behavior is denounced and the machinery starts to work.

In Castellón we are all on alert;

the juvenile section [of the prosecution] visits the centers, sometimes we give them talks, and sometimes after a talk they decide to report that they have suffered abuse.

That's what we're going for!

The prosecution in these crimes is unknown;

It is a very pick and shovel job, to be available to ”, he points out.

And the sport?

"It will give the girls and boys security when the information is from the Federation ... because then they will understand that the federation is there to protect them," he concludes.