Athlete Wilfried Happio targeted by a complaint for violence against his former partner

This complaint concerns facts dating from 2018 and 2019 and “committed during a marital relationship”, announced the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office.

Athlete Wilfried Happio, semi-finalist in the 400m hurdles at the Paris Games and accused of violence by an ex-partner, is the subject of a complaint “for acts committed during a marital relationship”announced Wednesday December 18 to AFP the Nanterre prosecutor’s office, confirming information from the newspaper The World. In a long article in the daily newspaper published in July, just before the start of the Olympics, Maria (not her real name) recounted the domestic violence she says she suffered from Wilfried Happio between 2018 and 2019, when she was in couple with this member of the French team.

The young woman, now 26 years old, who had not yet filed a complaint, said she was considering it “shortly”. She did it last week, wrote The World, “in a Hauts-de-Seine police station to report acts of domestic and sexual violence”. 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 responsible for the investigation, against this athlete for acts committed during a marital relationship”. The prosecution does not give 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 claims to have been a victim, showing images of her “thigh covered with a hematoma”those of a bloody jog or even a swollen jaw after “a huge punch to the head”. She recounted a vacation in 2018 during which her then companion had “literally cracked” and beat her until she feigned discomfort, “by survival instinct”.

After the publication of Maria’s testimony in July, Wilfried Happio was the subject of a disciplinary procedure launched internally by the French Athletics Federation (FFA), which also took legal action. Relying on the presumption of innocence, the FFA nevertheless maintained the selection of Wilfried Happio, who disputes the facts, for the Paris Olympic Games. His lawyer told the Monde that his client, already targeted in the past by complaints dismissed for violence, had been acquitted as part of the internal disciplinary procedure, during which Maria was not interviewed, according to the newspaper.