YOU NEED TO KNOW
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French Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel has been accused of allegedly raping and sexually assaulting the teenage daughter of his former coach
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The 33-year-old swimmer will go on trial after he was arrested for allegedly raping the young woman in 2016, when she was 13 years old.
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Agnel won two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics
French Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel has been accused of allegedly raping and sexually assaulting the 13-year-old daughter of his former coach.
According to the Associated Press and The Athleticthe 33-year-old swimmer, who won two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games, will stand trial after being arrested for allegedly raping the young woman 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 proceed, according to the French newspaper The World.
The general prosecutor’s office in Colmar, located in northeastern France, said on Thursday, January 15, that Agnel was charged by a criminal court and ordered to stand trial because he was an adult at the time of the alleged acts.
Agnel has 10 days to appeal to France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, according to AP.
PASCAL GUYOT/AFP via Getty
Yannick Agnel in 2014.
Prosecutors said the alleged incidents in question took place between December 31, 2015, and August 31, 2016, in various locations, including France, Thailand and Spain.
The outlets reported that Agnel was first arrested for sex offenses in December 2021, when a complaint was made about the alleged incidents in 2016. At that time, Agnel admitted that the incidents happened, but denied that any coercion had taken place.
That year, France passed a law that defined sex with a child under 15 — France’s age of consent — as rape. It is now punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
In July 2024, Agnel, who retired from swimming in 2016, attended a meeting with the victim, who is now twenty years old, which he had requested, every The World.
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Agnel won gold in the 200m freestyle and the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He qualified for the 2016 Games in Rio, but failed to make it past the heats that year. He announced his retirement from the sport soon after.
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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