Who is really telling the truth between Margaux Pinot and Alain Schmitt? This is the question that the Bobigny court will have to answer after the prosecution appealed against the judgment which declared the release for the 38-year-old former trainer. But now this story goes beyond the framework of justice and the case has become a media bombshell since the young judokate gold medalist at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo unveiled a photo of her face distorted by the altercation she had had in the night of Saturday to last Sunday. Since then, the two former lovers get rid of each other through the media by offering totally different versions of the facts.
I’m on my back, he’s straddling me and punching me
In the afternoon, Alain Schmitt explained to the cameras that the 27-year-old sportswoman had not accepted her departure for Israel to train the national women’s team. She would then have gone into a real fury and a very violent tussle would have followed, the two judokas banging several times against the walls or a radiator. A version very far from that of the young woman who held a press conference late yesterday afternoon. She indicates that her former companion physically attacked her without her being able to retaliate. “I’m on my back, he’s straddling me and punching me. He takes my head and bangs it on the ground “, she says.
But the physical assault does not stop there according to Margaux Pinot. “After this episode, he wanted to strangle me. In any case, he put his hands around my neck”, she continues, before indicating that she then had a few words for Alain Schmitt, telling him that she loved him and that she was going to recover from their separation. Once the embrace was less strong, the judokate was able to try to flee. “I was able to push him aside, run down the hall. He caught up with me. We projected ourselves a bit on the walls. He pulled my hair. I have holes in my head … And at that moment, I thought to myself: ‘It’s either you manage to break free from him, or you’re dead’“, she launches in front of the cameras. A chilling story and very far from the words of Alain Schmitt a few hours earlier. After taking refuge with neighbors before the intervention of the police.
Recall of facts
The story begins on the night of Saturday to Sunday in Margaux Pinot’s apartment in Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis). After a violent altercation with his companion Alain Schmitt, the police were called to the young woman’s home around 2:30 am. The man is then placed in police custody before being tried in immediate appearance by the court of Bobigny. The court then released the former judoka, going against the prosecution who announced to appeal the release on Wednesday. Since the case has taken an unprecedented media turn, figures of French judo such as Teddy Riner or Clarisse Agbegnenou declaring their solidarity with Margaux Pinot. Now, the case should be retried in the coming months, before the Paris Court of Appeal this time.