Former Olympic swimming champion Yannick Agnel will indeed be tried before the criminal court of Haut-Rhin for the rape of his coach's daughter, who was 13 years old at the time of the alleged events, following the rejection of his appeal on Thursday.

In May, an investigating judge in Mulhouse ordered the referral to the criminal court of the 33-year-old former champion, suspected of having had a relationship in 2016 with Naomé Horter, the daughter of his coach.

Yannick Agnel, who has always argued that the relationship was consensual and loving, had appealed this decision.

But the Colmar Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday that there was sufficient evidence against him, and that consequently he will have to be tried for rape and sexual assault.

Present in court, Thomas Wetterer, the young woman's lawyer, declined to comment on the decision at this stage.

In May, he had welcomed the prospect of a trial. "The investigating judge in Mulhouse reaffirms something that should be natural in common sense, which is that a 23-year-old man cannot have sexual relations with a 13-year-old child," he had stressed.

The lawyers for the accused, who did not travel to Colmar, still have five days to possibly appeal to the Court of Cassation.

The former swimmer, under judicial supervision since December 2021, faces a sentence of twenty years in prison.

Complaint filed in July 2021

Former member of Mulhouse Olympic Natation, Yannick Agnel is accused of rapes and sexual assaults that occurred between January 1 and August 31, 2016 on the daughter of Lionel Horter, with whom he was staying.

The alleged events took place in Mulhouse, but also abroad, in Thailand (where Mulhouse Olympic Natation regularly goes for training, editor's note) or in Rio de Janeiro, host city of the 2016 Olympic Games.

The investigation began in the summer of 2021 following a complaint filed by Naomé Horter - also a member of the club at the time, she has since given up swimming.

Yannick Agnel was charged five months later, on December 11, 2021. After 48 hours in custody, he "acknowledged the material facts of the charges, even if he has a memory problem for some rapes," explained the then public prosecutor, Edwige Roux-Morizot.

The swimmer has always denied any influence he may have had over the young girl.

But Ms. Roux-Morizot considered that the facts constituted "rape and sexual assault due to the age difference" and "genuine moral coercion".

Yannick Agnel has one of the finest records in French swimming: he was a double Olympic champion in London in 2012 in the 200m freestyle and the 4x100m relay, before being crowned world champion in these two disciplines in 2013.