2-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Indicted for Allegedly Raping Swim Coach’s Teenage Daughter

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• French Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel has been charged with allegedly raping and sexually assaulting his former coach’s teenage daughter.

• The 33-year-old swimmer will appear in court after his arrest for allegedly raping a young girl in 2016 when he was 13 years old.

• Agnel won two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics

French Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel is accused of raping and sexually assaulting his former coach’s 13-year-old daughter.

according to Associated Press And AthleticThe 33-year-old swimmer, who won two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games, will appear in court after his arrest for allegedly raping her in 2016 when she was 13 years old.

His lawyers appealed the decision for Agnel to face the charges in May 2025, but the French appeals court rejected the appeal and ordered the trial to continue, according to the French newspaper. Le Monde.

The chief public prosecutor’s office in Colmar, in northeastern France, said in a statement on Thursday (January 15) that Agnel was charged and ordered to stand trial by a criminal court because he was an adult at the time of the alleged acts.

Agnel has 10 days to appeal to the Supreme Court, France’s top court, according to the AP.

Prosecutors said the alleged incidents occurred between December 31, 2015 and August 31, 2016 in several locations, including France, Thailand and Spain.

Media reported that Agnel was first arrested for sexual offenses in December 2021, when a complaint about the alleged incidents was first made in 2016. At the time, Agnel acknowledged that the events had occurred but denied that any coercion had taken place.

That year, France passed a law defining sexual intercourse with a child under 15 (France’s age of consent) as rape. It can now be punished with up to 20 years in prison.

In July 2024, Agnel, who stopped swimming in 2016, attended a requested meeting with the victim, who is now in her early 20s. Le Monde.

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Agnel won gold medals in the 200-meter freestyle and 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He qualified for the 2016 Games in Rio but did not qualify that year. Shortly after, he announced his retirement from the sport.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to: rainn.org.

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