Belgian athletics has been rocked by the testimony of Hanne Maudens, a heptathlon champion, who has decided to publicly tell the ordeal she suffered under the tutelage of her former coach. The 28-year-old athlete has revealed that she was the victim of abusive behavior that affected not only her sporting career, but also her mental health.
In an interview with Dag Allemaal magazine, Maudens explains that the real reason for her temporary retirement from the heptathlon was not an injury or a tactical decision, but the trauma resulting from the abuse she suffered. “I left because I suffered unacceptable behavior from my former coach,” she confesses.
Maudens details a professional relationship marked by verbal humiliation, constant pressure, extreme control over her diet and excessive physical exertion. She trained under strenuous conditions, under near-total control, which led to great physical and psychological exhaustion. “I lived under continuous tension about my body, my performance and my physical appearance,” she says.
One of the most serious episodes, according to the athlete, took place during a training camp in South Africa. There, her coach offered to give her a massage that ended up leading to a borderline situation: “He asked me to take off my bra, then to lie on the floor. He sat on me and started massaging my back. From there, my mind blocked out what happened next.” It was only through specialized trauma therapy sessions that she was able to begin to reconstruct what happened.
Beyond the abuse, Maudens denounces the lack of institutional response after trying to have her case investigated. According to her, the Flemish Athletics Federation shelved her complaint without investigating the facts, concerned only with protecting the image of national athletics. “They erased my testimony. They preferred to avoid Belgian athletics being affected. That was the most painful thing,” she says bitterly.
The athlete criticizes the absence of external channels for reporting abuse, leaving athletes in a situation of total vulnerability: “There was no independent recourse, everything depended on the federation itself. We were defenseless.”
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In order to prevent anyone else from going through the same thing, Maudens has taken a step forward: she has hired a lawyer and filed two formal complaints against her former coach. She hopes that now, with her case already in the public eye, the federation will be forced to act and establish real mechanisms for athlete protection. “We are always the last to be heard. But that has to change,” she says.
Maudens has resumed training and dreams of qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games. Her goal now is not only sporting: she wants to contribute to a profound transformation in Belgian athletics culture.