“We must give strength to the victims in order to speak in time”: Roxana Marachineanu reacts to the death of Gilles Beyer

Gilles Beyer will never be convicted. The former manager of the French figure skating team died on Thursday at the age of 66 after a long illness. It was thanks to him that a scandal about sexual violence in sports broke out 3 years ago. At the time, figure skater Sarah Abitball released a chilling book, The Long Silence, in which she talks about the rape and sexual harassment she experienced when she was 15 and 16 years old at the hands of a man who was her coach.

“I’m in shock. He leaves before the trial, I would like there to be a trial,” Sarah Abitbol explained to L’Obs. The former sports minister Roxana Marasinyanu, who supported the skater and put pressure on the president of the French Ice Sports Federation and Didier Gayage, close to Gilles Beyer, to leave his post.

What does the death of Gilles Beyer mean to you?

ROXAN MARACHINYAN. It was thanks to Sarah and the facts that she exposed in her book about this gentleman that it became easier to reveal the words of the athletes. I have a thought especially for these young girls and guys who once had the courage to break their silence, this is an omerta in the world of sports.

The death of Gilles Beyer means there will be no trial…

I think about Sarah. I saw him two weeks ago at the ministry, at the presentation of the National Order of Merit to him. She was better. She was waiting for this trial. Even if the facts were prescribed to her, it was important for her that this gentleman be judged. He still had six complaints against him. For all the victims, this trial was important. This is what they fear the most, but also what they most expect to ask this question, why, to express in the words of adults what they could not express in childhood. This confrontation between victims and aggressors is part of their recovery and reparation process.

What should be done to help the victims?

We must better protect them, help them in their recovery. Make decisions so that athletes have confidence in institutions, sports, the police, the judiciary. You must give enough strength to other victims so that they speak in time. Today we see how important this is.

What did you put in place after this novel?

I tried to be worthy of the courage of the victims, to purify this particular sport, in which many, up to the top of the federation, knew or doubted. We achieved in the law of March 2022 that the precautionary measures to ban practicing can be valid until the trial, and not a maximum of six months. We have also funded about twenty associations to help victims psychologically, support them during this long time between complaint and trial. This is still not enough, it takes a lot of resources: when I left the ministry, there were 650 administrative investigations, in about fifty federations, half of which resulted in complaints.