The fall of ex-singer Yannick Agnel, indicted for rape

Considered "the intellectual of French swimming", Yannick Agnel, 29, double Olympic champion and withdrawn from basins since 2016, was to publish in January his first novel entitled Les Racines du Soleil.Arthaud editions said on Monday that its exit was canceled due to the serious affair which plunges into troubled waters one of the icons of French swimming.

Arrested Thursday at his Parisian home, Yannick Agnel spent 48 hours in police custody in Mulhouse (Haut-Rhin), before being referred before an investigating judge who indicted him on Saturday for "rape and sexual assaultOn a minor under the age of 15 ».The prosecution had requested the placement in pre -trial detention in order to avoid any pressure on the victim.The liberty and detention judge preferred to place the former champion under judicial supervision.

To see also - rape on a minor: Agnel "did not feel like having placed this woman under stress", according to the prosecutor

A good media image

The facts would have taken place in 2016 when Yannick Agnel was training at the Mulhouse club.The complainant is the daughter of a former swimmer coach, and she was 13 years old at the time of the facts mentioned.Now 19 years old, she filed a "very detailed" complaint in July, according to the public prosecutor of Mulhouse Edwige Roux- Morizot.

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"Yannick Agnel recognizes the materiality of the alleged facts," the prosecutor revealed on Monday.According to her, the former swimmer said he had not had "the feeling that he (had) had constrained" in a relationship "which continued in 2016".And the magistrate to specify that even in the event that the victim was consenting, the age difference - 13 years and 24 years old at the time of the facts - is a constitutive element of rape or sexual assault.Yannick Agnel risks big, up to 20 years in prison.

Harder could therefore be the fall for this former champion, who embodied the golden age of French swimming.Double Olympic champion at the age of 20, in London in 2012 on the 200 m freestyle and the 4 x 100 m relay, the Nîmes was crowned world champion in these two disciplines in 2013.His career ended sadly at 24, after the Rio 2016 Games, on a sporting and human failure.Eliminated from the 200m series, he had also been criticized by his 4 x 200 m teammates after a controversial package.The slender swimmer has always singled out during his career.When his opponents were swimming in polyurethane combinations in 2009, he had for example remained faithful to the classic swimsuit…

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Enjoying a good media image, Yannick Agnel had hitherto known an active retirement.He had notably invested in e-sport, by becoming a sports director of a club.Consultant for France Télévisions since 2019, he was also a columnist for franceinfo, but the media announced "to suspend (this) collaboration until the conclusions of the investigation".It is not the only judicial case that currently concerns him.Yannick Agnel had indeed criticized his former Mulhouse club for not having honored his last year of contract for an amount of 60.Euros.The case had been tried in favor of the former champion, but a appeal trial must take place in March 2022.

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