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the judokas Alain Schmitt and Margaux Pinot explain themselves in the media

The judokas Alain Schmitt and Margaux Pinot faced each other, this Thursday, December 2, by interposed media after the release of the coach from the facts of domestic violence of which his partner and Olympic champion accuses him, dismissed from the Blanc-Mesnil club in Seine-Saint-Denis.

Alain Schmitt denounces a “media lynching”

It was first Alain Schmitt who counter-attacked, at the beginning of the afternoon, by lambasting a “media lynching”. The 38-year-old coach, who appeared in front of the cameras with a huge bruise on his face, denied punching Margaux Pinot, or slamming her head against the ground at the sportswoman’s home in Blanc-Mesnil on Saturday night see you on Sunday.

According to him, it was she who threw herself on him and they would then have beaten as in a judo fight, rolling in the middle of the apartment. “She hit me hard in the door, then we went from right to left, in the wall, in the radiator … We really hit everywhere”.

Margaux Pinot maintains its version

A version that Margaux Pinot, gold medalist at the last Olympic Games with the mixed France team, firmly rejected when she presented herself in turn in front of the cameras at the end of the day, in the office of her lawyer. The face covered with bruisess, the 27-year-old described an outburst of wanton violence from her partner, who had consumed alcohol, while she was in bed. “He straddled me, he started punching me, right, left … I didn’t even defend myself to avoid the blows, I told him Alain, stop, stop!” .

“It is my spirit of warrior, of fighter, which saved me. It is judo, she added.

Margaux Pinot and her lawyer at a press conference after the trial against her trainer Alain Schmitt, whom she accuses of domestic violence © Radio France
Margaux Stive

The prosecution appealed against the judgment

On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, the Bobigny Criminal Court released Alain Schmitt at the end of a hearing in immediate appearance, estimating “not having enough evidence of guilt”. The prosecution appealed. This judgment aroused indignation in the world of judo and on social networks, where justice found itself accused of laxity towards domestic violence.

After the decision of the Bobigny court, the Israeli Judo Federation announced that it had suspended all contact with Alain Schmitt, who was to coach the Israeli women’s judo team.

3919: the emergency number for women victims of domestic violence
3919: the emergency number for women victims of domestic violence © Radio France
Radio France

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