It’s a case that had the effect of a bomb in the small world of French swimming. On December 9, Yannick Agnel, star of the discipline and double Olympic gold medalist, is arrested by an investigating judge following the opening of a judicial investigation for “rape and sexual assault on a 15-year-old minor”. The former swimmer is accused of having had a relationship with one of the daughters of his coach at the time, Lionel Horter, when he was talking to the Mulhouse swimming club in 2016. During his police custody, the 29-year-old former sportsman recognizes the materiality of the facts, but explains that he “did not feel that there was constraint”, according to Edwige Roux-Morizot, the prosecutor of the Republic of Mulhouse.
After his police custody, Yannick Agnel was indicted on December 11 and released under judicial control. Since then, it is the forfeiture for the former swimmer who is dropped from all sides. If the facts date back to 2016, many around Mulhouse Olympique Natation are wondering why this story is only coming out now. For some people it could be revenge or manipulation, especially when we know financial disputes which oppose the Mulhouse swimming club and the former swimmer. Suspicions that scandalize the family according to BFMTV, which interviewed relatives of the complainant. According to them, these “rumors” would come directly from families of former elite swimmers of the club, now at odds with him.
Has the Horter family known for years?
Some do not understand that the affair is only coming out now when, according to them, the Horter family has known about this relationship for several years now. While many of the club’s swimmers knew about it, they don’t understand that the girl’s own family couldn’t be too. A complaint that fell after Mulhouse Olympique Natation was ordered to pay €60,000 to Yannick Agnel.
It’s complicated to reveal this kind of facts, all the more complicated when the aggressor is called Yannick Agnel
A version refuted by the family, who explains that the young girl took a long time to realize the situation. After seeing Yannick Agnel again during the French championships in December 2020, his sentence would have become “insupportable” and in early 2021, she starts to get depressed and lose weight. It was then that she told her parents about it and in February of the same year, she even decided to stop swimming. After a long reflection, she finally decides to file a complaint. “It’s complicated to reveal this kind of facts, all the more complicated when the aggressor is called Yannick Agnel”, explains the girl’s lawyer, Maître Isabelle Rollet.
Yannick Agnel remains presumed innocent of the charges against him until the final judgment of this case.
Find the article in its entirety on the BFMTV website.