Sofia Bekatorou’s shocking confession about the sexual assault she received

The victim of sexual abuse revealed that the Golden Olympian, Sofia Bekatorou, had fallen from a sports factor. She spoke about her dramatic experience at an Internet Conference on “Start to Talk – Break the Silence – Speak, Do Not Tolerate”.

“At one point as we were talking to X I came back and he kissed me. I froze, I did not know how to react, I never expected him to make such a move. For me, X represented the paternal model, he was a man who finally did not fight us in the Federation and wanted our good, I thought.
I continued to move at a faster pace, pretending that I did not understand what had happened, although I told him, telling him that I had never expected such a move from him.

Arriving at our hotel, in the elevator before going to his room, he asked me to follow him. I refused and went to close the door. He always politely and with a smile asked me if I was afraid of him and then I replied that no, but that there was no reason for me to go to his room together.

Trying to convince me, he assured me that he was not going to do anything erotic just to talk. But he knew how to talk to me and how to calm me down and make me drop my defenses. And when that happened, he started harassing me. “I tried to push him away, to show him that there is no mutual desire, believing that he will respect it”, said Sofia Bekatorou initially.

“I felt dirty, exhausted, humiliated”

He continued: “I told him no, I repeated to him that I do not want to go ahead and he with fake sweets said that it is nothing but joking. He said he would stop if I did not want to, but he did not stop whatever I told him. Crying and ashamed, I left the room when he finished and got up from above me. I returned to my room where my colleague was sleeping unsuspectingly. I took a bath, I felt dirty, exhausted, humiliated and unable to defend my rights. “

At the same time, Sofia Bekatorou referred to her choice not to talk to anyone: “While we had just acquired the right to dream with Emilia, if I was talking about what happened to me, it might collapse. I could not manage this feeling and I could not share it with my team because it might have divided us. Our team, which included the men’s team, was always on a thin rope of balance and there were no strong ties that could make me speak openly.

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 countries.

“Never repented”

This half-man who had no limits, took advantage of situations, my emotional euphoria and dedication to my goal. He took advantage of our team’s weakness, knowing that there was not much cohesion and strength, his institutional position, to satisfy his sick instinct. The only one I managed to open up to was the bond I was maintaining at the time, from whom I also asked not to react, as he was also an athlete “.

“X never repented or changed the way he worked. With the change in my attitude and my coldness, he became ironic and generally questioned my abilities and performance at every possible opportunity, saying that younger athletes should have more opportunities and not those whose careers are in the west. of. I adopted this mentality from 1999 to 2019. During this time I have achieved the most distinctions for our country in sailing, but having lost the most important asset as a personality: the love for myself “.