Greece’s Olympic sailing champion Sofia Bekatorou’s decision to speak out over an alleged sexual assault by a high-ranking federation official in 1998 has set off the country’s #MeToo movement. Shortly after the former Olympic gold medallist revealed the assault earlier in January during an online event organised by the Ministry of Culture and Sports about the protection of children in sport, dozens of other cases emerged, as a domino effect that exposed the dark side of sports in Greece.
Following the powerful testimony on the assault that occurred during preparations for the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the federation official’s hotel room, the Athens public prosecutor’s office launched a preliminary investigation and when the official’s name was revealed, his Hellenic Sailing Federation (HSF) membership was suspended. Several members of the federation resigned out of respect to Bekatorou, and Greece’s Stavros Niarchos Foundation froze all payments to HSF. Although th
19 January 2021 10:17am
Veteran Olympic champion Sofia Bekatorou was summoned to testify before prosecutor Sotiria Papageorgakopoulou on Wednesday, after she reported that she had been sexually abused by a Sailing Federation official in 1998.
Despite the launch of the prosecutor’s investigation, other possible victims of similar behaviour must now come forward to testify in order for the case to be prosecuted, as the offences Ms Bekatorou described are now statute-barred.
Ms Bekatorou told the Greek edition of Marie Claire that she had suffered the assault in 1998 when she was 21 years of age.
Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis commended the athlete on social media for speaking up.