The allegation of abuse by the former top water jumper Jan Hempel also stunned his long-time dubbing partner Heiko Meyer. He didn’t know the details.
Former water jumper Heiko Meyer was dismayed by the allegations of abuse by his long-time dubbing partner Jan Hempel.
“I knew that happened, but to what an extent – it hit me too,” said the 45-year-old, who won bronze in tower synchronized diving with Hempel at the 2000 Summer Olympics, the German Press Agency . “This is incredibly sad and shameful.”
In an ARD documentary entitled “Abused – Sexualized Violence in German Swimming”, Hempel used moving words for the first time to publicly raise allegations of sexual abuse against coach Werner Langer, who has since died.
Meyer revealed that Hempel let him in on it. “As a good and long synchronizing partner – we are still friends today – of course you experienced that,” said the husband of the former top jumper Christin Steuer: “But he never went into detail with me.”
After going public, he spoke to his friend, who was also in poor health, Meyer said: “He seems very calm, very introspective.” He hopes that the courageous step will pay off: “I hope that Jan can find some peace. He’s been a broken man for years anyway.”
“What sometimes happens in sport is sad”
The former top diver suspects “that certain people will now also fight back”. Nevertheless, it is right that the public is now informed. “Also to protect others,” said Meyer: “What sometimes happens in sport is sad.”
Such a scandal is a problem for the many irreproachable youth coaches in Germany, said Meyer: “You are eyed twice and three times.” He himself is a youth coach at SC Riesa, “and because I know that from Jan, I always look left and right”. He behaved “unbelievably cautiously”, with stretching exercises, for example, there was always a trainer present “so as not to get into a quandary in the first place”.
Looking back, he himself considers it lucky that at the age of twelve or 13 he decided against the accused Langer and for Frank Taubert as a coach in Dresden. What might have happened otherwise, “I don’t even want to think about it,” said Meyer, “I’m very glad it went the way it did.”
Source: Stern
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