The athlete Ophélie Claude-Boxberger, also at the heart of a doping case, won in court in Montbéliard (Doubs) the right to bear the name of his father, the former athletic star Jacky Boxberger, AFP learned on Monday.
In this civil procedure, the Montbéliard court rejected the request of Jacky’s widow, Flora Boxberger, and their son Jérémy, to prevent Ophélie Claude-Boxberger from bearing the name of her illustrious father. The court also ordered Flora Boxberger to pay € 10,000 in moral damages for the athlete and € 1,500 in compensation for attorneys’ fees, according to the trial judgment dated June 10 and consulted by AFP.
Born from another relationship in 1988, the 3,000 m steeplechase specialist had been recognized by her father, former champion Jacky Boxberger, seven days after his birth, but had not grown up with him. Ophélie Claude, in the civil status, had added the use of her father’s name after his death in 2001.
“This puts an end to the relentlessness suffered for years, since the death of my dad
Ophélie Claude-Boxberger
This right was contested by Flora Boxberger and her son Jérémy, who considered that the name had been added for commercial purposes and that Ophélie’s attitude had harmed the sporting career of Jérémy, a former good level athlete in the categories young and in the same club as his half-sister. “It puts an end to the relentlessness suffered for years, since the death of my papa”, Ophélie Claude-Boxberger reacted to AFP.
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