He is now the subject of an official complaint. While he had been the subject of an internal disciplinary procedure by the French Athletics Federation (FFA) after the testimony in the press of a former partner in July, Wilfried Happio is now the subject of a complaint official for domestic violence.
In a long article in the daily Le Monde published in July, just before the start of the Olympic Games, Maria (not her real name) recounted the domestic violence she said she suffered from Wilfried Happio between 2018 and 2019, when she was in a relationship with the athlete. The young woman, now aged 26, who had not yet filed a complaint, assured that she would consider it “soon”. She did so last week, Le Monde wrote on Wednesday, “in a Hauts-de-Seine police station to denounce acts of domestic and sexual violence.”
A story of multiple episodes of violence between 2018 and 2019
The Nanterre public prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP on Wednesday “the existence of a complaint filed on December 13, 2024 with the Nanterre police station seized of the investigation, against this athlete for acts committed during of a marital relationship. The prosecution does not provide further details, “so as not to hinder the ongoing investigations and as long as the person accused has not been heard about them”.
In her testimony this summer, Maria recounted, with supporting photos and through a multitude of episodes, the violence of which she claimed to have been a victim, showing images of her “thigh covered with a hematoma”, those from a bloody jog or even a swollen jaw after “a huge punch in the head”. She recounted a vacation in 2018 during which her then companion “literally broke down” and beat her until she feigned discomfort, “out of survival instinct”.
After the publication of Maria’s testimony in July, the FFA also took legal action. Relying on the presumption of innocence, she nevertheless maintained Happio’s selection for the Paris Olympic Games where he ran in the semi-finals of the 400 meter hurdles. The lawyer for Happio, an athlete already targeted in the past by complaints dismissed for violence, told Le Monde that his client had been acquitted as part of the internal disciplinary procedure, during which Maria was not been interviewed, according to the newspaper.
