German gymnastics remains in focus. Another former hopeful speaks out. Kim Janas particularly criticizes how she deals with injuries, diet and weight. Pauline Schäfer-Betz also speaks out.
The former top talent Kim Janas has also publicly denounced grievances in German gymnastics. The 25-year-old criticized via Instagram primarily the way she dealt with injuries, diet and weight during her career, which she ended at the end of November 2016 after three cruciate ligament tears.
Kim Janas: “Not completely healed”
Even eight years later, Janas wrote, she was “not completely healed” of what she experienced. But at least she “found a way to deal with it better.”
Jumped around on the bed during training courses
Janas reports on controls. The topics of food and weight were on the agenda. “From daily weighing to checking bags to make sure there are no sweets in them, there was everything,” wrote the former German youth champion. She still remembers how she jumped around on the bed during training courses “to lose a few grams. For fear that at tomorrow’s weigh-in you would get pissed off and be exposed again.”
Defamed as a “fat person”.
She was “portrayed as fat” because she had nine percent body fat. Janas reported that she was banned from eating foods such as bread, spreads, sausage and even water. She wrote about her early end to her career: “Maybe my body would have made it. But not my head. The fears were too great. Not only about getting injured again and again and having to endure the pain during training. No, also the fear “Once again, not being taken seriously and being dropped, having to continue training even though you don’t know whether you’ll end up on your feet or on your head after jumping off for a double somersault.”
Two trainers in Stuttgart released
Janas was born in Halle an der Saale and later trained in Stuttgart. She is one of several former athletes who have made grievances in German gymnastics public in recent days. Led by the former German selection gymnasts Tabea Alt and Michelle Timm, serious allegations were made, especially against the base in Stuttgart.
Schäfer-Betz: “Repeated systematic failure”
In the debate about the grievances in Stuttgart, Pauline Schäfer-Betz denounced a “repeated systematic failure”. It remains a central problem “that the people who are responsible for these grievances are covered by the system,” wrote the former balance beam world champion on Instagram. “As long as this is the case, there will be no real changes.”
The 28-year-old also alluded to her own experiences. With Schäfer-Betz at the helm, athletes at the Chemnitz federal base made serious accusations to their then coach Gabriele Frehse at the end of 2020. She is said to have harassed the gymnasts during training, administered medication without a doctor’s prescription and did not allow any objection. Frehse had always denied the allegations. Nevertheless, the German Gymnastics Association (DTB) refused to continue working with her. After winning a legal battle over her termination by the Saxony Olympic Training Center, Frehse is now the women’s selection coach in Austria. The Chemnitz public prosecutor’s office had previously stopped all investigations.
“I know what it’s like to be trapped in a system like this,” Schäfer-Betz wrote. “It takes unimaginable courage to address these grievances or make them public.” Their own story was not an isolated case; they wanted to show that it was a “systematic problem”.
The German Gymnastics Association and the Swabian Gymnastics Association are busy processing it. Two trainers were temporarily released.
Broadcast on Tuesday, January 7th, 2025 at 3:00 p.m., SWR Aktuell in the afternoon, SWR Aktuell
