“Marseille Gym Trainer on Trial for Employing Bullying Tactics, “Terror,” and “Omerta”

Technical director of the Pôle France de gymnastics de Marseille for several years, Vincent Pateau, questioned by five of his former athletes, appeared on Friday before the criminal court for “moral harassment”.

Is Vincent Pateau this gym trainer “keen”, firm, of course, but as one should be at a high level of competition, as several witnesses at the helm argued? Where is this “perverse manipulator”, this all-powerful referent wielding mockery and insult, accustomed to punishments and remarks on the weight of his young athletes, as others have denounced? It is this tipping point between the requirement and the harassment that the 11th chamber of the Marseille criminal court had to assess this Friday. The defendant, 44, technical director of the Pôle France de gymnastics de Marseille, implicated by five young athletes he was training, appeared for “moral harassment”, sent to court for “repeated remarks or behaviors having as their object or effect a deterioration of living conditions affecting health”. Pierre Ettel, a former coach of the Pole, is also implicated by one of the complainants but will be judged later, in November.

The alleged facts spread over several years, between 2015, date of arrival of Vincent Pateau at the Pôle gym de Marseille, and until 2021, when he has meanwhile been promoted to technical manager of the structure. A first report in 2020 sent to the French Gym Federation only resulted in a simple reprimand. It will be necessary to wait until the following year and the departure of one of the gymnasts, followed by similar ascents from parents, to lead to deposits of pl