With impressive descriptions, the former world-class water jumper Jan Hempel raises serious allegations. For years he was abused by his coach at the time.
Jan Hempel speaks softly. Again and again he falters, looking for words for the incomprehensible, what he wants to tell, what he has to tell. The former world-class water diver wipes his face with his hands several times.
You can feel: He is currently fighting a very hard battle. Hempel talks about a 14-year history of suffering. According to his own statements, from 1982 to 1996 he was repeatedly sexually abused by his then coach Werner Langer. Now, at the age of almost 51, he is going public with it.
In a documentary by ARD entitled “Abused – Sexualized Violence in German Swimming”, the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bronze medalist talks about the allegations against Langer, who died in 2001. “I was abused by my coach. He never missed a moment not to let his wishes and needs run free,” says Hempel, adding: “I think you owe it to others for the future too speaks.”
According to Hempel, he defended himself against Langer for the first time before the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. The following year he reported to the then national coach about the events. Langer was suspended at the time, but not because of abuse, but because of an alleged Stasi past, says Hempel. “Everyone has been silent until today.”
DSV wants to clarify the facts
Hempel accuses the incumbent national coach of water jumpers Lutz Buschkow of also having knowledge of the allegations at the time. The German Swimming Association released Buschkow from his job at the European Championships in Rome on Thursday until the facts had been finally clarified. After the 64-year-old was present at the gold medal of Tina Punzel and Lena Hentschel in synchronized diving from the three-meter board in the afternoon, he no longer looked after the team at the pool edge in the Foro Italico in the subsequent men’s competition.
However, the DSV also announced that the previous inspection of the files had not given any indication that Hempel’s allegations against Buschkow were correct. “We have agreed that we will take Lutz Buschkow out of the fire here, but this is initially a presumption of innocence,” said ARD President Marco Troll.
The DSV President at the time, Rüdiger Tretow, also assured that neither he nor the Presidium had any knowledge of the allegations of abuse against Langer, according to the DSV statement. “On behalf of the entire association, we would like to apologize to the victims for having to endure such traumatic experiences,” the association statement said.
In the documentation, Hempel expresses his disappointment with the DSV. “For many years, I had to feel firsthand that only sporting success is important to the DSV and that everything else, whether health or any problems, actually takes a backseat,” says the Saxon. There are still people in the association who used to do it that way. The DSV explains that the association’s board first learned of Hempel’s allegations against Langer on August 11 through a media inquiry.
Dresdner SC was also shocked
Dresdner SC, for which Hempel used to be active, was also shocked. “What I had to read and see in the media today shocks me deeply,” DSC President Wolfgang Söllner is quoted as saying in a club statement. “After the allegations became known internally, Mr. Langer was withdrawn from the national coach at the time and given a lifelong indoor ban by the DSC,” said Söllner. “It was Jan Hempel’s express wish at the time to keep the subject out of the media.”
“I didn’t know the allegations until today,” said Söllner. “According to my research today, it seems correct that Jan Hempel made these allegations against his coach in 1997.” At that time, Langer was working for the federal association at the Dresden base and was not employed by the DSC.
Hempel reports that before the 1992 Olympic final in high diving in Barcelona, Langer abused a stadium toilet. Another athlete who wants to remain anonymous says in the documentary that Langer “attacked” him while he was sleeping.
Hempel: “Now I can still remember it”
Hempel was diagnosed with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. “I notice that more and more is disappearing from my head. Now I can still remember it. I don’t know how long that will be the case,” says Hempel, who wrote down details about the abuse for himself.
Hempel had previously told his wife Ines about it. “It was very difficult for him to talk about it, so he wrote it down,” reported Ines Hempel in tears in the documentation. She read these notes and says: “What has broken the soul, I can’t heal either.”
Maximilian Klein from Athletes Germany commented on Twitter “speechless and sad” about the allegations and called for an “independent review”. “The documentary shows well-known things,” wrote the athlete representative. CSU politician Stephan Mayer called the allegations “shocking”. “In the specific case, it must be investigated whether the German Swimming Association was informed of the allegations in 1997 and why it did not react,” said the sports policy spokesman for the CDU and CSU, according to a statement.