Judo coach Alain Schmitt was again released on Friday by the Paris Court of Appeal for acts of domestic violence against his former judoka companion, Olympic champion Margaux Pinot.
Judo coach Alain Schmitt was again released on Friday by the Paris Court of Appeal for acts of domestic violence against his former judoka companion, Olympic champion Margaux Pinot. The two athletes have been tearing each other apart for six months in court and through the media over a violent altercation that occurred in November 2021 at Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis), for which the technician had already been released at the end of year in correctional at Bobigny.
«I am happy that the magistrates showed common sense (…) I will perhaps be able to live normally“Reacted Alain Schmitt, smiling but very moved, at the end of the hearing. “It was a lot of waiting, a lot of doubts, a lot of words to take, things that I had a lot of trouble taking in and today I’m relieved.“, he added. Margaux Pinot was not present at the hearing. She did not wish to react to this decision, said her lawyer Rachid Madid.
The 28-year-old judoka claims to have received numerous blows to the face by Alain Schmitt, which her ex-companion, 38, has always denied. As in the first instance, the prosecution had requested on appeal a one-year suspended prison sentence for Alain Schmitt. The first release of Mr. Schmitt, bronze medalist at the 2013 Worlds (-81 kg), had outraged the world of French judo and kicked off a media battle between the athletes. The photo posted on social networks by Margaux Pinot showing her swollen face caused a scandal, propelling the sportswoman into an emblematic victim of unpunished violence against women. French judo stars Teddy Riner and Clarisse Agbégnénou had publicly expressed their support for their teammate from the France team. The Bobigny prosecution had appealed.
Margaux Pinot did not join this action, and was therefore heard during the appeal hearing as a witness. During the two trials, one in Bobigny in December, the second in Paris in April, the two athletes did not change their statements, delivering contradictory accounts of the events that occurred during the night at the home of the judoka. Linked on the tatami by a coach-athlete relationship at the Étoile Sportive du Blanc-Mesnil club, Alain Schmitt and Margaux Pinot have had a confidential love affair since 2017.
Judo probably saved me
Margaux Pinot
While he must fly to Israel a few hours later to take the post of coach of the women’s national team, the technician argues in the middle of the night with Margaux Pinot. He depicts a woman mad with rage who throws herself on him and then a fight like a “tornado“, based on judo takes where the duo bumps violently against the walls and objects of the apartment, according to his story. He denies having dealt the slightest blow to his companion. The scene played out very differently, according to Margaux Pinot, who recounts a surge of violence from her trainer. “He slams my head two or three times on the floor. Then he goes to strangle me“, she has detailed in particular on several occasions. “Judo probably saved me“, she added to the bar.
Many bruises were observed the following days on the two protagonists. But without an image or direct witness to the facts, the file nevertheless remained confined to the stories of two athletes. His dreams of Israel annihilated by this affair, Alain Schmitt has nevertheless rebounded: he now trains the judo teams of Bulgaria. As for Margaux Pinot, team gold medalist in Tokyo, she won a bronze medal at the end of April at the European Judo Championships in Sofia… in Bulgaria.