Interviewed in July by the newspaper The World In mid-July, Maria* planned to file a complaint against Wilfried Happio “soon”. It ultimately took him five more months to cross the door of a Hauts-de-Seine police station, reports the daily. In his testimony to MondeHappio’s ex-partner, now 26 years old, recounted, with supporting photos, the violence of which she indicated she was a victim between 2018-2019.
In these images, a “thigh covered with a hematoma”, a bloody jogging suit or even a swollen jaw after “a huge punch in the head”. She still recounts their vacation in the summer of 2018, during which her then companion “literally broke down” and beat her until she feigned discomfort, “out of survival instinct”.
Other complaints of violence and sexual assault
Faced with these accusations, the 400 meters specialist, through his lawyer Anthony Mottais, “contested the facts with which he is accused”. He even competed in the Paris Olympic Games this summer, despite a disciplinary procedure launched internally by the French Athletics Federation, which also took legal action.
This is not the first time that Wilfried Happio finds himself in the sights of justice. The six-time French champion in the specialty has already been targeted in 2022 by a complaint for sexual assault filed by a young athlete resident at Insep, ultimately dismissed. Happio had also not been sanctioned by the institute following an internal investigation.
According to The Worlda first complaint for violence was filed in the fall of 2020 by another athlete, with whom he had had a brief relationship. The preliminary investigation was also dismissed, for “insufficiently characterized offense”.
*The first name has been changed
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France
