Just last week there was movement in the gymnastics, at least in a figurative sense: The Stuttgart public prosecutor’s office is now also investigating those responsible beyond the mats as part of the allegations of massive abuse of power at the federal women’s base in Stuttgart. The focus is on current and former executive board members and employees in managerial positions, five at the Swabian and four at the German Gymnastics Federation.
It is about the suspicion of “in some cases attempted, intentional bodily harm and coercion in several cases through omission”. The DTB explained that the names known are the chairman of the board of top Olympic sports, Thomas Gutekunst, and the honorary president Alfons Hölzl. Both said they denied the allegations.
It all started about a year ago and seemingly harmlessly. Meolie Jauch posts that she is ending her gymnastics career: “because mentally it’s no longer possible.” A chain reaction follows. For weeks, former gymnasts, coaches and parents have been describing the psychological and physical abuse that has apparently taken place in the successful region since the 1990s: threats, humiliation, ignoring, punishing training, competitions with broken bones, painkillers, eating disorders and even the sentence “I will kill you” when things didn’t go the way the coach wanted.
A number of young women report therapy to help them regain their bodies and self-confidence. This also becomes public Olympic gymnast Tabea Alt the grievances had already formulated in the summer of 2021 in a long letter addressed to those responsible. What has happened since then?
Successes before the labor court
At the end of January 2025, the senior federal base trainer Marie-Luise Mai and Giacomo Camiciotti were fired. Both took legal action against the termination. At the European Championships in the spring, the underage Helen Kevric, who was looked after by Camiciotti at the games in Paris, declared that she was not a “victim of abuse”. At the time, Thomas Gutekunst denied the rumor circulating around the country that his father Kevric was threatening to move to Bosnia and Herzegovina if the coach did not return.
Soon afterwards, two Americans were hired and have been leading the training in Stuttgart ever since. At the end of the year, Mai and Camiciotti won their labor court cases. The termination is invalid. The judge in the Mai vs. STB case declared at the end of July that, in his opinion, there was “no suspicion of a crime.”
My colleagues at the public prosecutor’s office see it differently. At the beginning of February 2025, it reported that “an investigation had been initiated against a coach from the Stuttgart Artistic Gymnastics Forum on suspicion of coercion in several cases”. As of December 2025, investigations are underway against the two and a third trainer from Stuttgart on suspicion of dangerous or intentional bodily harm and coercion in over 25 cases.
In total, the State Criminal Police Office searched 13 properties and interviewed 77 witnesses. But so far no investigation files have been released, not even to colleagues from the labor court. With regard to the time frame of the investigations, the following still applies: “No statement can be made about the time at which individual or all investigations will be completed.”
Please exercise restraint
The German Gymnastics Federation also reacted quickly: in January 2025, it announced both an external investigation by the Frankfurt law firm Rettenmaier and the establishment of an external expert council that would then process the results and draw conclusions. President Hölzl promised that “nothing would be swept under the carpet.” The findings from Tabea Alt’s letter are in the “Performance with Respect” process as early as 2021 and incorporated into on-site measures.
Now, at the start of its own investigation, the public prosecutor’s office asked that third-party questioning of witnesses be postponed in order not to jeopardize its own “clarification of the facts”. The DTB complies with this request and postpones crucial parts of its own investigation. This costs money, as does legal representation and advice; according to the association’s estimate from the summer, at least 650,000 euros.
As an employer, the Swabian Gymnastics Association announced the dismissals of Mai and Camiciotti. According to his own statement, he is also adhering to the public prosecutor’s request to refrain from questioning those affected. This is also why the labor court proceedings were ultimately lost, so the argument goes. On the other hand, in the eyes of many of those affected, STB employees in particular were able to see what was happening over the years – the system was successful.
This includes federal base manager Michael Breuning, who retired in March. The public prosecutor’s office has now implicitly confirmed the assessment of those affected by starting investigations against officials. The STB is appealing the labor law dispute and hopes to inspect the files soon. This also entails financial burdens for him; managing director Matthias Ranke describes the financial situation as “complex”.
Minister of Education calls for clarification
And then there is the Baden-Württemberg State Sports Association, or LSVBW for short. He is the sponsor of the Stuttgart Olympic base, which includes the “Athletes’ House” and the boarding school in which some of those affected temporarily lived. There is a sponsor behind this, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for sport, and which – according to the minister – provides around 1.6 million euros annually for competitive sports personnel in gymnastics through the LSVBW.
And so Minister Theresa Schopper resorted to probably the most effective weapon of all when she declared at a state parliament hearing in March 2025 that the LSVBW “is no longer allowed to pass on state funds to the STB” that are intended for trainers or competitive sports personnel as long as her house’s demand for a “complete clarification of the events” has not been met. Shortly afterwards, the sports association presented a draft for a working group, which then stated that “processing current incidents in gymnastics” was not their task.
AG member Carmen Borgrefe, professor of sports sociology and sports management at the University of Stuttgart, affirmed in October: “We should not provide clarification, but we should analyze structures.” With regard to the difference between its own demands and the AG’s approach, the ministry now explains: “There is no discrepancy.” The AG, chaired by Klaus Pflieger, himself a former attorney general in Stuttgart, is also the only player that is currently questioning gymnasts affected.
In fact, there was also gymnastics last year: at the European Championships in Leipzig, the women’s team won silver, with a lot of effort 17-year-old Helen Kevricwho seriously injured her knee in the next competition. Karina Schönmaier, who – like the majority of the senior squad athletes – trains at the Chemnitz federal base, won two gold medals. Head coach Gerben Wiersma continues to promote his credo from “happy, healthy gymnasts”, but seems strangely left out when it comes to the entire abuse debate.
“I feel sorry for everyone.”
According to his own statement, he was not informed about Tabea Alt’s letter or measures in Stuttgart when he was hired around four years ago. He said last February that he had never experienced the abusive practices described during training courses and that he was not aware of any allegations when he suggested Camiciotti as an Olympic coach in the summer of 2024. “I feel sorry for everyone, for the gymnasts and for the coaches,” said Wiersma at the time, adding that he assumed that no one had acted “with bad intentions.”
What remains? The investigations by the State Criminal Police Office will be able to shed light on the chronology: Who actually knew what and at what point in time? Was a report made where necessary, perhaps also to youth welfare offices or the police? Last but not least, the question is: Did those responsible look the other way because the success of the Stuttgart gymnasts always seemed so tangible? For all those offenses below the legal threshold of criminal liability, it will be important how serious the DTB is about its reappraisal.
Michelle Timm, herself a former gymnast and, as a coach of young boys, a witness to the abuses in Stuttgart, informed the DTB about the “catastrophic” conditions in October 2024. Today she says about the past year: “I think it’s hard to describe what happened last year. It was a grueling year for many people. For me personally, it destroyed a lot, and there is hardly anything left of the initial hope. You have had to endure a lot and the time that continues to pass is no help, but I am aware that patience is needed.”