The case rhythmic gymnastics continues to divide the sport. While the minister of youth and sports Andrea Abodi hopes “just, not exemplary penalties” in the story of the abuse of students, the instructor Miriam Patrese swears that he won’t weigh his girls. And she adds that she too ended up in the meat grinder when she competed: “I was harassed when I barely weighed 45 chili. To my mother they said: “your daughter has too big legs”. Meanwhile, the mother of another pupil accuses: abuse is a system. “The first slap in her life my daughter didn’t get from me or from her father, but by an instructor. I took her away from that gym and she never came back ». Subsequently, a complaint was filed on the facts Federginnastica. “But the instructor has”bargained“A month of suspension without admitting guilt”.
The criminal complaint
The woman tells today in an interview with Corriere della Sera to have submitted a exposed penaltyfor the slap given to her daughter. And that she did it because she wants that no more such facts happen “And that whoever slapped my daughter will never return to coaching.” The facts took place in a gym in the North East. «If a girl hadn’t warned me almost regretting having done so, if I hadn’t seen my daughter’s face, maybe I wouldn’t have noticed. When the students get used to the system do not tell anything at home, I think out of fear ». The coach told her «that my daughter was distracted and that was why she fell off the beam. That she had been forced to slap her and that in fact the following exercise had been performed perfectly ». Subsequently, the woman collected other testimonies about students who were pulled by the hair or slapped. Then came the convocation in the federal prosecutor’s office. And the month of suspension. While an executive said that all this could be there.
The story of Miriam Patrese
Miriam Patrese instead it has 27 years old and teaches rhythmic gymnastics a Roma in addition to playing the role of competition judge. «Even in my day there were group weighings. It happened to little girls and older girls, systematically. It was used as a warning, so that no one could hide. It happened in all realities, from the lowest to the highest levels, ”he tells today a Republic. «Everyone knows the judges they tend to reward thinness. If you are not thin and skinny, you are braked. Do a gold exercise, but come fourth if you don’t have all the inches right, if you don’t childlike appearanceHe adds. This is why the coaches ask themselves «if it is right invest in a gymnast if they know that in the race she will be penalized. And it starts with the comments on the physical aspect. I was harassed by the technicians and I barely weighed 45 kg. They inculcate a fee, you are measured continuously. At first it is a challenge with others, then it becomes a challenge with yourself».
A generation of anorexics
Patrese says he told the instructors that they were growing up «one generation of anorexics. Many gymnasts have had eating problems, which certainly affects their present. I was left with the trauma of thick legs, I always tend to cover them“. And he explains that «the body of rhythm teachers and coaches in Italy is composed mostly by women who are no longer young. And the juries mostly from old school judges, formed on the famous Russian modela kind of regime of terror. In Italy we studied it very well. I know that the videos of the Russian trainings are observed carefully, there are real sessions. We copy. And we have learned to win. But at what cost? ».
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