A French Olympic swimming champion has been charged with the rape and sexual assault of a teenage girl.
Yannick Agnel, who won two gold medals in the 2012 London Olympics, is suspected of having had a relationship in 2016 with a then-13-year-old girl.
The prosecutor general’s office in Colmar confirmed that the 33-year-old retired Olympian will stand trial since he was an adult at the time of the alleged acts.
He has 10 days to appeal to France‘s top court, the Court of Cassation.
Agnel was first arrested in December 2021 and at the time admitted to a relationship with an underage girl but denied coercion.
His legal representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The girl was 13 and Agnel was 24 in 2016 at the time of the alleged acts in several locations including the French city of Mulhouse, where the swimmer was training, Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics, Spain and Thailand, according to French judicial officials.
Agnel won two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics – in the 200-metre freestyle and the 4×100-metre freestyle relay – and retired in 2016.
Olympic medallist Yannick Agnel (pictured in 2012) has been charged with the rape and sexual assault of a teenager
Agnel was first arrested in December 2021 and at the time admitted to a relationship with an under-age girl but denied coercion
In 2021, France passed a law that characterises sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail, bringing its penal code closer to many other Western nations.
French media previously said the investigation was launched after a swimmer who trained with Agnel in Mulhouse from 2014-16 filed a lawsuit.
L’Équipe newspaper said several swimmers, current and retired, have already been questioned as part of the investigation.
