The president of the French Sailing Federation announced on Monday that skipper Kevin Escoffier had left the Ocean Race, a sailing race around the world in a team and in stages. A departure due to‘inappropriate behavior’ towards woman in Newport, in the USA. The navigator had indicated it himself on Saturday on his Instagram account, referring to an “alleged incident”, during the stopover which took place from May 10 to 21 in the American city. But this first post has been deleted and reworded.
For its part, race management issued a press release this weekend stating that the 43-year-old skipper was stepping down for “personal reasons“. The president of the French Sailing Federation, Jean-Luc Denéchau, clarified the causes on Monday at franceinfo: “The alleged incident referred to by the skipper is actually inappropriate behavior he allegedly engaged in towards a young woman at a party in Newport“.
A report to the Ministry of Sports
Kevin Escoffier will be the subject of a report from the French Sailing Federation to the sexual violence unit of the Ministry of Sports on Monday, AFP learned. “The facts that have been reported to me justify that I make a report to the Ministry of Sports and very likely launch a disciplinary procedure within the federation“, underlined Jean-Luc Denéchau.
If he did not wish to give more details on the testimonies collected at this stage, the president of the Federation estimated that “if the facts were to be proven, these are behaviors that cannot be tolerated“.
After stopping in Newport, the sailors of The Ocean Race headed for Aarhus (Denmark), where they arrived on May 29. The PRB-Holcim team, with Kevin Escoffier as skipper, had been leading the general classification since the start in January, before giving up first place during the 5th stage to the American crew 11th Hour.
