Margaux Pinot is a twenty-seven-year-old French judoka, winner of a silver and a bronze medal at the last Tokyo Olympics. In the night between Saturday and last Sunday had denounced of having been attacked by her partner and coach, 38-year-old Alain Schmitt. Pinot had been taken to the police station with a broken nose, black eyes and other traumas on her face, head and neck.
Schmitt was arrested the same night at their home outside Paris and later charged with domestic violence. The following Tuesday, however, the judge assigned to the case cleared him for lack of evidence, evaluating the incident as a couple’s quarrel degenerated into violence: the prosecutor had asked Schmitt for a year in prison with suspended sentence, and presented appeal.
After the Pinot sentence, which had shown the swollen face on his social profiles, he wrote: «What was missing? My death perhaps? It was judo that saved me and my thoughts go to women who cannot say the same ».
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, I was the victim of an assault at my home by my companion and trainer.
I was insulted, punched,
my head was hit on the ground several times. And finally strangled. pic.twitter.com/Ghbwg8NVQy– Margaux Pinot (@ MargauxPinot2) December 1, 2021
Schimtt showed up at the press conference with a black eye on Wednesday, denied all allegations and called Pinot a liar. He claimed that he had a fight with us, and that he was punched first. In the struggle, the two would have fallen against a radiator on which Pinot would have procured the most evident injuries. “She jumped on me and grabbed me by the neck. I moved back, she pushed me against a doorpost. I banged my head. I got up a little dazed. He punched me and it just escalated. We hit the walls, a radiator, a door, “he explained to the press.
Pinot and his lawyer also held a press conference in which the athlete gave his version of the facts: “He grabbed me by the hair, pulled me to the ground, straddled me and started tearing me my hair and banging my head on the ground. He wanted to strangle me. ‘ She also accused him of lying and trying to pass her off as a “hysterical woman”.
The case is at the center of great discussions in France these days. Sports minister Roxana Maracineanu took the defense of Pinot, as well as the national judo federation, the mayor of Paris and socialist presidential candidate Anne Hidalgo and wrestlers Teddy Riner and Clarisse Agbegnenou, among the most famous in France. Riner he wrote: «We are all deeply touched by what our teammate Margaux Pinot is going through and we give her our full support. What needs to be done to ensure that victims are heard? Could the aggressors be condemned? “
