| In France, a dad bullied his children's athletes' rivals There are many parents in the world who are eager to turn their child into a sports star - the national pride of the country. But what 43-year-old Frenchman Christophe Fauviau did is perhaps without precedent. To ensure victories on the tennis court for his 16-year-old son Maxim and 13-year-old daughter Valentin, the former military man added an antidepressant that causes drowsiness to the soft drinks of their opponents.
The criminal zeal ended badly. On July 3, 25-year-old school teacher Alexander Lagardere, having met Maxim on the court, was unable to continue playing after the first set. He went home in his car, in which he crashed to death, apparently falling into a deep sleep on the way. An autopsy revealed the presence of the drug Temesta in Lagardère’s body, which he did not take because doctors did not prescribe it to him.
The investigation established that at the end of June Fovio made some suspicious manipulations with water bottles. The bottles were intended for two young athletes - a semi-finalist and a finalist of the National League tournament. Maxim could play with both. The semi-finalist did not drink his water, but the finalist did and after the tournament was sent to the hospital.
Now Fovio, Maxim’s father, has been arrested and charged with “manslaughter.” If the charge is confirmed, Fovio faces 20 years in prison. This is a minimum, since the exact number of poisoning episodes is still unknown.
The leaders of the tennis league of the Landa department, where the Fovio family lives, were especially surprised by the fact that the father “helped” mainly his son Maxim, a good athlete, who, however, was “not destined” to become a champion under any circumstances. Valentin, the country's tennis hope, has already participated in many international meetings in Germany, Canada and the States. She returned from one of these tournaments last Saturday, the day of her father’s arrest. Sports circles in France are in shock, because they know that none of the children needed their father’s “support”, and do not know how to explain to teenagers what to do next.
Intrusive parental supervision of tennis prodigies is quite common. Many fathers and mothers travel with their children around the world, using their talent and sporting achievements as the main source of family income.
Peter Graf, the father of the famous German tennis player Steffi Graf, took full control of her finances from the first years of his daughter’s performances at international tournaments. As a result, Steffi was fairly frayed by the fiscal authorities, who presented her with serious claims regarding tax evasion, and Peter Graf ended up in jail.
In 2000, at Wimbledon, Damir Dokic, the father of Serbian Jelena Dokic, smashed the mobile phone of a journalist who, as Dokic thought, wrote something wrong about Jelena. And in the States, he started a fight in a cafe at a tennis complex because he didn’t like the high price of... a sandwich. Dokic accused the organizers of the Australian Open of rigging the results of the draw and “slipping” his daughter into a strong rival in the first round. Elena broke up with her father only when he began to interfere in her amorous affairs.
The American Richard Williams, who trained the leaders of the world classification Serena and Venus Williams, is also not of a sugary character. The father of “black lightning” does not hide his racist beliefs and is ready to do any dirty trick to raise the issue of black rights. His daughters try to distance themselves from their father’s scandalous statements, but when it comes to training, they meekly obey him. Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN, Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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