French Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel to stand trial on rape, sexual assault charges

Audio By Carbonatix

PARIS (AP) — French Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel will stand trial on charges of rape and sexual assault on the 13-year-old daughter of his former coach, the prosecutor general’s office in Colmar said Thursday.

The prosecutor general's office confirmed that the investigative chamber of the Colmar appeals court ordered Agnel, 33, to go on trial since he was an adult at the time of the alleged acts. He has 10 days to appeal to France’s top court, the Court of Cassation.

Agnel was first arrested in December 2021 and at the time admitted to a relationship with an underage girl but denied coercion.

His legal representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The girl was 13 and Agnel was 24 in 2016 at the time of the alleged acts in several locations including the French eastern city of Mulhouse, where the swimmer was training, Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics, Spain and Thailand, according to French judicial officials.

Agnel won two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics — in the 200-meter freestyle and the 4x100-meter freestyle relay — and retired in 2016.

In 2021, France passed a law that characterizes sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail, bringing its penal code closer in line with many other western nations.