Shocking are the allegations of the Greek Olympian, Sofia Bekatorou for a case of sexual abuse that she suffered from a man of the Sailing Federation, during which time she was an athlete.
Ms. Bekatorou, speaking at an online event organized by the General Secretariat of Sports, revealed that a man from her close sports environment had sexually harassed her. At the same time, he explained the reasons that he had not revealed earlier about this incident: "And our coach was 25 years old, quite emotional and inexperienced in matters of crisis management. Also, at that time, we did not have any collaboration with a sports psychologist and of course I would never talk to my parents, because they would stop me from sailing. In my small and innocent mind the only solution was to be silent and pretend that nothing happened. I cried a lot and when I woke up I started a show that ended until a while ago. "With a lot of work, treatment and analysis, I managed to take on the burden of my responsibility, not to speak then, in order to remove this factor outside of sports venues".
Bekatorou's revelations prompted other athletes to make similar complaints. Shortly 24 hours after Bekatorou's revelations, international swimmer Mania Bikov and technical swimmer Rabea Iatridou, with their own posts, describe traumatic experiences from the period when they were athletes.
The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, contacted Sofia Bekatorou today. Mr. Mitsotakis, in a post on social media, after the communication he had with the Greek Olympian, emphasizes that her decision to boldly denounce the sexual violence she suffered as a teenage athlete is an act with a heavy social burden. A movement that awakens consciences, setting a positive example.
Posts of support for Sofia Bekatorou were made by the president of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras and the President of the Movement for Change, Fofi Gennimata