Story By: Juan Mayes, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
This is the 19-year-old Mexican gymnast who has been snubbed by Mexican Gymnastics Federation after accusing her coach of spanking her bottom when she was just 18.
Mexican gymnast Victoria Mata, 19, spoke out to local media after her coach Eric Demay allegedly spanked her bottom during a training session with the Mexican team.
The actual date of the incident is unclear however Mata has recently spoken to local media saying: “You can clearly see how I am doing the physical preparation.
“He bends over and spanks me, I do not know what his intention was but I did not like it.”
The alleged incident was captured on video and was presented to the Mexican Gymnastics Federation FGM president Gustavo Salazar who reportedly did not see any “anomalies” in the video and snubbed Mata’s request for the action to sanctioned.
Mata described the incident saying: “We were doing a circuit and he was checking that everybody was doing it correctly.
“It happened while I was doing the exercise, it only happened once. I told my parents, the first thing they asked me is if I had felt it. They were very uncomfortable like me.”
Both Eric Demay and his wife Cecile Demay were hired by Mexico to help the national team qualify to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The couple reportedly have a history of physical and psychological abuse to their athletes after accusations by gymnasts formerly trained by them have surfaced throughout their career.
The Demays were eventually sacked by Salazar however local media report the sacking had nothing to do with the accusations but was due to Mexico not classifying to the next Olympics “which is what they were hired for” in March of this year.
Mata won a bronze medal last year in the World Cup held in Guimaraes, Portugal and dreams of “participating in the Olympics”.
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