The committee appointed to investigate allegations of swimmer abuse at the hands of famed Hungarian coach György Turi, former coach of Olympic icon Laszlo Cseh, has revealed its findings.
In addition to a full 16-page report, which you can read in full here, the members detailed key results at a public press conference today, Friday, December 10th.
Members of the committee commissioned included the head of the Hungarian Swimming Association Child Protection Committee, Emese Danks as well as President of MUSZ Sandor Wladar and Olympic swimmer Richard Bohus, among others.
Refresher on original abuse allegations can be seen here.
Key findings communicated in the press conference include the following:
- The committee notes that in many cases in the 80’s and 90’s, as in other coaches and other sports, physical punishment (use of slaps and sticks) was regularly present in the training methods of György Turi, which was already more scattered than in the 2000s. Sexual abuse during this period cannot be proven.
- No statements were reported by the victims of the abuse. Competitors did not tell the parents about the abuse or, if they did, the parents did not consider it necessary to interfere with this method of upbringing.
- In many cases, the use of humiliating and degrading remarks was found to have been made, especially in the case of female competitors in relation to their weight and menstrual cycle. Improper treatment of the weight problem in female competitors has led to bulimia symptoms.
- From the 2000s onwards, the above methods gradually disappeared from the tools of György Turi and were significantly refined, but offensive remarks about weight and degrading speaking style remained.
- In his statement, György Turi largely acknowledged the above-mentioned abuses and apologized to the injured competitors before the committee.
The committee’s findings also conveyed that Turi helped his athletes with money, travel favors or even hard-to-reach medical treatment. In many cases, athletes have mentioned a parent-child relationship in connection with their relationship.
Due to the time passed since the events in question, there will be no legal consequences. Additionally communicated was the fact that “Although the current president and leadership of MÚSZ cannot be held responsible for the past, he apologizes to the victims in the name of universal swimming.”
Ultimately, the Sports Discipline Regulations, conditions for obtaining coaching licenses, as well as child protection programs will be reviewed and updated in light of these results.
No, just some of them
The question is’, without all this « abuse », would he get all these results as a coach?
of course not. The proof is that all olympians have been coached by people like Turi. NOT!!
Nice priorities you got there
what needs to be approved in my comment? What flagged it?
A key sentence was:
due to the time that passed since the events, there will be no legal consequences
Why? The culture of abuse he created hasn’t changed that much, he never publicly apologized.
plus
incorrect translation:
“Regular and deliberate or pleasurable physical abuse during this period cannot be proven. ”
what it says is “s- e-x ual abuse and advances” NOT physical
the beatings have been proven.
Please stop spamming the comments repeatedly with either empty or repeated comments. Thank you.
This sounds like some apologist BS. It was mostly a long time ago, he’s sorry, he helped his athletes, yada yada yada