The Association for Modern Pentathlon has terminated its national men’s coach Andrii Iefremenko at the end of the year. According to its own statements, the association leadership sees “no basis for further cooperation”.
With the dismissal, the new association management is drawing conclusions from two employee interviews that the two vice presidents said they held. Iefremenko has this “The opportunity and request offered to him for a cooperative agreement was not used”write the two vice presidents Lutz Keister and Jan Langrehr at the request of the Sportschau.
This is an ordinary termination at the end of the year. A specific reason for termination was not given. The statement simply states: “In the opinion of the association management, the employee did not fulfill parts of his contractual obligations.” The most recently public allegations against Andrii Iefremenko are “not the specific reason for the termination” been.
allegations of abuse of power
Both some athletes and trainers had repeatedly accused Iefremenko of, among other things, abuse of power and an authoritarian leadership style. This emerges, among other things, from documents available to the sports show. In addition, numerous people described relevant incidents in interviews.
The Sportschau had already reported on it in September. Iefremenko missed various opportunities to present his point of view and did not respond to inquiries about the allegations. Iefremenko also did not respond to a recent query about his view of the termination.
I have the termination “relief” was triggered by those athletes who made allegations, says athlete spokesman Patrick Dogue. On the other hand, some athletes would lose their coach due to termination. However, they would have “A lot of athletes left the training group after this chaos that has happened there in the last few weeks and months.”
New Association leadership after a tough struggle
For months, the association was mired in internal disputes over the legitimate leadership of the association. Two camps had formed and, among other things, accused each other of using the allegations of abuse of power against the national coach for their own purposes. One side had made allegations against Iefremenko that had been swept under the table. The other side had allegations as “cleanly processed” designated.
The division in the association’s leadership also had an impact on athletes. Some had drawn the consequences, stopped playing the sport, switched to another sport or are now competing for another country.
Two months ago, after a tough struggle, a compromise was found at the general meeting in Frankfurt. The two camps had agreed on two vice presidents, who have been officially registered in the association register since the beginning of October, as the Darmstadt district court confirmed.
New leadership duo wants to have allegations dealt with
Jan Langrehr and Lutz Keister have now apparently come to a joint decision regarding Iefremenko’s personnel and, according to their own statements, have given notice of termination as of December 31, 2025. At the general meeting at the beginning of September, Vice President Jan Langrehr had already announced that he wanted to deal with the allegations of interpersonal violence in accordance with the rules and regulations of German sports youth.
“As far as we know, allegations of abuse of power have been made repeatedly in recent years. We also currently see a need to address these and current existing allegations.”says the written statement from the two vice presidents. The association leadership is currently in the process of putting together a review team.
Regardless of Iefremenko’s personality, helplessness still shines through in conversations with trainers. For example, when it comes to the association’s current sports orientation with a view to the 2028 Olympic Games. Apparently the new association leadership has not yet been able to meet the expectations of clear guidelines.