“Either you manage to free yourself from him, or you are dead”: judokate Margaux Pinot recounts her assault and c – ladepeche.fr

It is with great aplomb and courage that Olympic judo champion Margaux Pinot spoke on Thursday evening to recount the violent assault she says she was the victim of by her companion and trainer Alain Schmitt.

“He straddled me, he punched me with both hands. He wanted to strangle me, he put his hands around my neck. I tried to push him away with my legs (…) I thought I was going to give up my life there. either you manage to free yourself from him, or you are dead“, said Margaux Pinot, with black eyes. Her companion was” alcoholic “when she was assaulted during the night from Saturday to Sunday at her home in Blanc-Mesnil (Seine Saint-Denis).

After having managed to escape from her apartment, shouting “help, help” on the stairs, she took refuge with a neighbor who called the police. “It is my spirit of warrior, of fighter which saved me, it is judo. I have never faced violence like that”.

The 27-year-old judokate, gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, suffers 10 days of working time interruption (ITT).

Read also :
Margaux Pinot reveals her swollen face after the release of Alain Schmitt: “What was death missing?”

Earlier in the afternoon, Alain Schmitt took the floor to give his version of the facts. The 38-year-old judoka assured not to have hit his companion, displaying a huge bruise on the upper right part of the face. According to his version, he was to leave for Israel on Sunday to train the women’s national team, which Margaux Pinot would not have supported. She allegedly reproached him for “abandoning her”. They would then have fought as in a judo fight in the middle of the apartment.

False according to Margaux Pinot: “He lies and he continues to make me pass for a hysterical woman”. She assures that she was counting on this departure to end their relationship.

“I have never hit a woman in my life and I never will,” assured Alain Schmitt. He said he had received a hundred death threats since Margaux Pinot posted a photo of her, her face swollen, on social networks.

Read also :
After Margaux Pinot, Alain Schmitt appears in his turn injured in the face: “Of course she is lying”

Alain Schmitt had he already been violent in the past? “Twice in four years,” replied Margaux Pinot. She explained that her companion ransacked her apartment and put his hands around her neck but he had never slapped or punched her before. Alain Schmitt, him, evoked other violent altercations in the past. “She calmed down after two or three minutes, even if she broke everything, she was going all over the place.”

Alain Schmitt was tried in immediate appearance Monday evening but he was released by the courts who felt they did not have “enough evidence of guilt”. The public prosecutor of Bobigny appealed. The lawyer for judokate Me Rachid Madid said he was “amazed at the decision of the Bobigny Criminal Court”.

Margaux Pinot has received the support of many stars of French judo: Teddy Riner and Clarisse Agbégnénou have publicly shown their support.