The approach path becomes more complicated Andreas Sargent Larsen towards the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after having won the individual pass for the 10 meter platform at the last World Championships in Doha. The blue diver is in fact the protagonist of one thorny legal matter which could even cost them participation in the Olympics.
The Italian-Danish will have to appear in court in Rome for the first time on June 25 after being sent to trial for persecutory acts against his ex-girlfriend. The situation is serious and the Federnuoto, through his Prosecutor’s Office, has requested a copy of the documents from the ordinary Prosecutor’s Office of the Capital. The girl who filed the complaint, for facts dating back to four years ago (she was 17, he was 21), was also Larsen’s teammate at Aniene.
“He squeezed my neck until I bled, he suffocated me twice with a pillow. When he lost his temper, stopped the car and forced me to get out, told me, ‘I’m going to crash, I want to die’, he was obsessed with the possibility that I could go out with another diver and on the away match he attacked him in front of three coaches“, says the young woman.
In an interview with Repubblica, he then added: “My coach, Benedetta Molaioli, had brought him to Rome from Denmark. He had moved seas and mountains. We prepared together and a friendship was born, which slowly became a more personal relationship. It was never easy, not for a minute. It might seem like we were a happy couple, he was kind to my parents, but that wasn’t the case. I have never told my mother many things. I was little and I accepted situations that I should have liquidated immediately. I apologized to him for everything, he always made me feel guilty“.
On his farewell to Aniene last December: “I couldn’t stay any longer, I had lost trust in my coach. She left me defenseless, she always protected her pupil. When I went to her, devastated and scared about what was happening, she silenced me: ‘For me Andreas is a good boy,’ she said. ‘You’re having too much trouble, don’t talk to me about it anymore’. She explained to my mother that the violence I suffered depended on my attitudes. Perhaps Molaioli expected a little girl not to talk to anyone in the pool and to walk with her gaze lowered to avoid the jealousy of the diver she protected. I never really understood: what should I do, exclude myself? I have never had any dubious attitudes, I have done nothing to make Andreas jealous. He, however, betrayed me“.
The 21-year-old explains that Larsen “it is protected because it serves the Italian national team, individually and in teams. I was included in the project for the European synchro championships, but in the youth championships my shoulder came out after a dive. They operated on me, I did a year of rehabilitation. It was a tough time, but I was working hard for the Paris Games. If I had been able to train like the others I believe that, yes, I would have made it. They didn’t give me the chance. Will he go? It seems unfair to me, but I’m so disappointed and shocked that I can say I expected it“.
In the meantime the Police took steps to collect the blue diver’s service pistol, member of the Fiamme Oro. Sargent Larsen had already had problems with the law, receiving a three-month disqualification (12 April-11 July 2023) for doping after being found positive for Carboxy-THC.
