The youthful photos of former Olympic skier Geneviève Simard speak volumes about the deleterious hold that a coach can exert on her recruits; most have been redacted to erase any presence of the abuser. Bertrand Charest may have been found guilty of sexual assault on nine young skiers, Geneviève Simard, she still lives with this weight. In I believed in you, however, she refuses to be discouraged, urging other athletes to name loud and clear, like her, what the sports world still refuses to see.
Accompanying and developing a young athlete, “it’s so beautiful”, but it can also be “so dangerous”, summarizes the double Olympic medalist Sylvie Fréchette, who knows well the failings of an environment of which she herself has made the fresh and still struggling to make its mea culpa. Last March, five athletes filed a class action against Canada Artistic Swimming, pushing Sylvie Fréchette to distance herself even further from her sport. “I don’t want to feed the beast anymore. I hardly coach anymore. I don’t trust the system right now. »
With the calm testimonies of five other athletes, this sensitive documentary shakes with its quiet determination to show how easy it is for a coach to take advantage of his authority in an environment that overvalues performance. The very sober approach of director Sophie Lambert accentuates the stripping effect. No sensationalism here. We attack the root of an evil to better eradicate it. And it’s very powerful.
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