In 2016, Fernando de Carvalho Lopes had been removed from the staff of the Brazilian national gymnastics team, a month before the Rio Olympics, after a complaint from the parents of a young athlete. Six years later, the former coach of the Brazilian selection has just been sentenced to 109 years and eight months in prison for the rape of four athletes, including at least one minor, as reported on Tuesday by local media.
The former Brazilian coach was sentenced at first instance on Monday by a court in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo, according to the site Globo Sports, who had access to the procedure, protected by judicial secrecy. Fernando de Carvalho Lopes, who should appeal because he considers himself innocent, was convicted of assaulting four gymnasts, including a minor aged 13 at the time, according to Globo Sportswho did not specify the ages of the other gymnasts.
He trained young gymnasts for twenty years
Other accusations weigh against the former coach: four years ago, around forty athletes had claimed to the Globo TV channel that they had been victims of moral, physical or sexual abuse on his part. Some of them took part in the legal proceedings as witnesses to the facts, which allegedly took place between 1999 and 2016, when Fernando de Carvalho Lopes was in charge of the MESC club in Sao Bernardo do Campo.
The ex-coach took care of young gymnasts for twenty years. In April 2019, the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD) banned him for life from any activity related to his sport. The world of gymnastics has already been splashed by the case of Larry Nassar, a former American doctor sentenced in early 2018 to several heavy prison sentences for having assaulted at least 265 victims, most of them minors, under the guise of medical treatment. In Britain, Greece, Australia and New Zealand, athletes have also reported abuse by coaches.