Agency Report –
Berlin – German Gymnastics Federation (DTB) president Alfons Hölzl is not ruling out additional abuse allegations to those directed against the Stuttgart and Mannheim training centres.
“To be honest, I don’t know what else is coming,” Hölzl told the Bild am Sonntag paper.
“Initially, a lot of it focussed on the national base in Stuttgart, but we also have other reports. We are not suffering from tunnel vision.”
Allegations emerged in December, with former elite gymnasts Tabea Alt and Michelle Timm speaking out about the Stuttgart training centre, detailing what they saw as “systematic physical and mental abuse” and “catastrophic conditions.”
Others have followed and the affair has spread to the Mannheim training centre through accusations of authoritarian training methods.
Two Stuttgart coaches have been suspended, and a former Stuttgart coach is under investigation on suspicion of coercion in several cases, with police conducting searches on Thursday.
According to dpa information, the offices of the regional Swabian Gymnastics Federation (STB) and the Stuttgart training centre were among the properties searched.
Hölzl said that the DTB has welcomed the investigation and supported it from the outset.
He pledged that the STB and DTB would part ways those whose wrongdoing has been proven.
“If there are breaches of duty under labour law, it goes without saying that appropriate measures will be taken. The federations are not just paying lip service to this – as the personnel consequences in Stuttgart show,” Hölzl said.
The DTB and STB have also sought external help in their effort to clear up the affair, and the DTB has agreed to set up an independent council of experts, with Hölzl naming both measures “of pivotal importance.”
