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26-year-old French women's tennis player Emmanuelle Girard made some chilling revelations about her former coach. Girard, without naming the coach, accused him of psychological and verbal abuse as well as repeated instances of humiliation.
Girard, originally hailing from Reunion Island, a French department situated in the Indian Ocean, got an offer to hone her tennis skills at a Regional Center for Sports Resources, Expertise, and Performance in the French mainland after her on-court talents caught the eye at the junior French Championships event. Accepting the offer as a 14-year-old, she went on to train at the center for four years.
However, the time she spent there, according to her, turned out to be a nightmare because of an abusive coach. In a revealing interview with L'Equipe, originally published in March this year and later updated in December, Emmanuelle Girard recalled a day when the coach made inappropriate comments about her when she was on her period.
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"One day, he said to me, "I can hear you're on your period. When you walk, I can hear your pad flexing." I was 15, he was 42 or 43," Girard told L'Equipe.
She also shockingly revealed that the coach often told her and other girls who trained at the tennis center regarding the intimate moments he shared with women.
"He also told us his sex stories... To another girl, he said, " You should shave your legs and armpits." She was 14. In fact, he wanted to mold us in his own image. He used fear, he manipulated us." she added.
"You're a piece of s**t" - Emmanuelle Girard recalls how abusive coach targeted her at junior tennis event in South America
In the same interview, Emmanuelle Girard remembered an instance of verbal abuse she faced from her former coach at a junior tennis event in Guatemala. According to Girard, she was not well during the tournament, but still made it to the quarterfinals. However, she was unable to reach the semis, which led to her coach furiously berating her.
"After the match, he tore me apart: " This is unacceptable! You're a piece of shit! You'll have to think about the consequences of your actions." After that, he made me eat alone in my room two nights in a row. I wasn't allowed to go out; I was being punished. And for a week, he forced me to train alone before the second tournament, without him and without my friend," she said.
She also claimed that her horrific experience of working with the abusive tennis coach resulted an eating disorder and subsequent anorexia, adding:
"After he left, I finished high school and went to train in Spain. That's where I started developing an eating disorder, something I'd never experienced before. I was anorexic for almost three years. I lost 10 kg in two months, I stopped eating, I weighed 54 kg, I couldn't train anymore. I slept constantly. I couldn't perform. My body took a beating, and it takes time to recover. It left both psychological and physical scars."
On the WTA Tour, Girard is currently unranked in both women's singles and doubles. Her career-high ranking in singles is 813, while in doubles, it's 879.
