“Fifty years of activism among young people which collapsed in two evenings. That's what people will remember about me. » These words are those of Jean-Yves Prigent. The coach, a historic figure in the world of French canoe-kayak, appeared this summer before the Rennes criminal court for acts of sexual assault committed against minors whom he accompanied in competition. Two teenagers reported touching while they were going to a competition in March 2024, in Châteauneuf-sur-Cher (Cher).
Aged 70, the Breton coach, father of athlete Camille Prigent (6th at the Paris Olympics), admitted to having “caressed the genitals” of two teenagers he was training and who were sleeping, at his invitation, on the same berth as him in his camper van. Less than four months after his sentence to four years in prison, the former slalom world champion (in 1977) is again in police custody, reports The Parisian. The famous “two evenings” mentioned by the coach might not be the only ones.
According to our colleagues, new testimonies were received by investigators, in particular that of a teenager, still a minor, who explained having been raped five times by the influential coach. It is on these facts that Jean-Yves Prigent is currently being heard.
In July, he was sentenced to four years in prison, including one year with an electronic bracelet and three years with probation. He was also banned from appearing at the Kayak club in Rennes, of which he was vice-president and where his daughter is licensed, and at the Pôle France Kayak in Cesson-Sévigné.
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