“We remain firmly convinced that we have taken the right personnel measures due to the allegations that became known to us at the turn of the year 2024/2025,” writes Matthias Ranke, managing director of the Swabian Gymnastics Association (STB), in response to an inquiry from the FAZ, with a view to two former top trainers at the Stuttgart Artistic Gymnastics Forum.
On January 23, 2025, the regional association terminated Marie-Luise Mai and Giacomo Camiciotti in writing. Both sued the Stuttgart labor court against the dismissal. May was proven right at the beginning of November, and a similar judgment in the STB case against Camiciotti was handed down shortly before Christmas.
Demand for clarification after allegations
Some descriptions go back over a decade, others described current experiences. In addition to the active participants, trainers and parents also dared to go public, a total of almost 20 people. Institutions such as Athletes Germany e. V. and associations including the German Olympic Sports Confederation then expressed dismay and concern and demanded clarification.
No news after a year
A year later there is no news about the processing. What remains: Mai and Camiciotti, as well as their respective life partners, who were also part of the coaching team, no longer work in the artistic gymnastics forum, but two trainers from the USA have been hired.
The “master trainer” – as the local press called her
Marie-Luise Mai, who was the responsible federal base coach when the allegations became known, had been working with gymnasts since at least 2004, including at times her daughters Marie-Sophie and Giulia. The “master trainer” – as the local press called her – guided the top German gymnasts Kim Bui and Elisabeth Seitz for years; There are also three outstanding talents, Tabea Alt, Kim Janas and Emelie Petz, whose careers ended far too early due to injuries.
With the exception of Seitz, all of these gymnasts publicly described the abuse of power they experienced in Stuttgart last year. According to his statement in an interview, Giacomo Camiciotti began his coaching career in 2007 at various clubs near Milan and has worked at the Lombard club Pro Lissone since 2013.
From there he moved to Ireland and coached junior Emma Slevin at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games before being hired in Stuttgart in February 2019. There the sports scientist, who also completed a law degree, took over a group of juniors. A year ago, several of them – such as Catalina Santos-Moran Diaz or Amelie Pfeil – described in detail his actions in the hall at the time. In 2024, Camiciotti looked after Helen Kevric at the Olympic Games in Paris.
At the public meeting at the Stuttgart Labor Court in the Marie-Luise Mai case against the STB at the end of July, the former “master trainer” and her employer, in the person of the STB managing director Matthias Ranke, sat across from each other without saying a word.
“We have no template for action”
The presiding judge Stefan Funk stated in the introduction: “We have no evidence of any acts that we can deal with” and the facts presented by the STB were “not described”. From his point of view, there is “no suspicion of a crime”, which is why he is not suspending the proceedings as requested by the STB. “Probably” he will uphold the lawsuit.
Jürgen Schmitt, lawyer for the STB, referred several times to the public prosecutor’s investigations against the plaintiff. But the labor court is not the public prosecutor’s office, and the public prosecutor’s office does not release any files during ongoing proceedings. Schmitt replied that he had presented ten pages of facts, but admitted that concrete information about misconduct was missing.
“A three in front of it and six figures”
Mai’s lawyer Boris Dollinger countered that he had only made “diffuse claims”, “everything was extremely vague”, but he had submitted statements from gymnasts “that refute that”. These are probably statements from the four underage gymnasts who were most recently in Mai and Camiciotti’s training group and continue to train at the base.
After a short exchange about the amount of a possible severance payment – “a three in front of it and six figures,” was Dollinger’s demand – the judge ended the chamber hearing after just under twenty minutes with the statement: “An agreement cannot be reached.”
Application for stay of proceedings
STB managing director Matthias Ranke now responds with regard to the verdict that he can understand that the judge has accepted the lawsuit. Ultimately, “at the request of the public prosecutor, no contact was made with the gymnasts in advance of the trial. We were therefore unable to provide any witness statements that supported our point of view.”
That’s exactly why the application was made to suspend the proceedings during the investigation: “This was incomprehensibly rejected for us.” When the Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office asked whether such a request had been made to the STB, a spokesman replied that, given the ongoing investigation, “no further information can be provided at the moment.”
The investigation has been ongoing for more than ten months. So far, 13 properties have been searched and 77 witnesses have been interviewed. It is no longer just about an investigation into coercion at the federal gymnastics base (female), the Stuttgart Artistic Gymnastics Forum.
The public prosecutor’s office writes: “Three investigations were initiated against a former trainer (…) on suspicion of coercion in several cases each, as well as investigations on suspicion of dangerous bodily harm in six cases and on suspicion of attempted dangerous bodily harm in two cases and attempted intentional bodily harm in one case. Investigations were initiated against another former trainer (…) on suspicion of dangerous bodily harm in five cases, on suspicion of attempted dangerous bodily harm in four cases, on suspicion of attempted intentional bodily harm in three cases and on suspicion of attempted coercion in one case. An investigation was initiated against another trainer (…) on suspicion of attempted dangerous bodily harm in two cases.
Tabea Alt writes a letter about the grievances
A statement about when individual or all investigations will be completed “cannot be made”.
There are doubts about the willingness to cooperate with the STB on the part of those who addressed the public last year. After the hearing, lawyer Schmitt also said that the concrete statements were missing “because the ladies don’t open up to us.” Several of them initially drew attention to the unacceptable training methods internally, both during 2024 and also in the summer of 2021, when Olympian Tabea Alt named the grievances in a long letter.
“We plan to take a concrete position in January 2026”
The German Gymnastics Federation and the Swabian Gymnastics Federation explained a year ago that these findings were incorporated into “measures”. Those affected have the impression that the responsible superiors in STB and DTB knew about the practice and let it run – after all, the system was successful.
According to the first instance rulings, Marie-Luise Mai and Giacomo Camiciotti, both of whom did not answer questions from the FAZ, could demand to return to their jobs. However, the STB wants to prevent that. He has appealed. Managing director Ranke formulates an appeal: “Now it is also up to the gymnasts to support the process that they helped initiate and that we are continuing. Without appropriate court statements, it will be difficult to win these processes.”
In response to questions about possible failings by his own association and the ongoing request to apologize to those affected, he replied: “We plan to take a concrete position on this in January 2026.”
