Toxic climate, intimidating attitudes, xenophobic gestures towards naturalized athletes. Seven Portuguese judokas, six of whom were present at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, performed this Thursday an open letter in which they accuse the Federation, and more specifically its president Jorge Fernandes, of innumerable attitudes of contempt and prejudice towards athletes and the modality. More: the group that includes Telma Monteiro, Catarina Costa, Rochele Nunes, Bárbara Timo, Anri Egutidze, Patrícia Sampaio and Rodrigo Lopes is even advancing with the possibility of becoming the Portuguese Olympic Committee to manage the money related to the scholarships of the athletes who will be present in Paris-2024.
“It’s a lie”: president of the Judo Federation responds to an open letter from athletes (and explains the Coca-Cola episode)
“After many attempts at dialogue, and given the lack of understanding, flexibility and sensitivity of the President of the Portuguese Judo Federation (FPJ), Mr. we hereby make public the unsustainable and toxic climate which currently involves Portuguese judo, requesting the intervention of the Secretary of State for Sport, the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth and the Portuguese Olympic Committee”, the joint open letter begins.
“We want an ambitious judo and a healthy relationship with all the entities and people with whom we interact and we are willing to collaborate on a solution that allows us and all judoka to return to the competitive potential that Portugal deserves. But it’s with a feeling of desolation that we’re all watching oppressive and discriminatory attitudes practiced too often at the level of the national team that we are so proud to represent. What was a good solution during the period in which the pandemic caused by Covid-19 forced the creation of a training bubble, in Coimbra, which allowed us to be at the Games safely, is today one of the factors in which We deeply disagree with the strategy imposed by the JPF. We tried all possible means of communication”, continues the same letter.
“We have done everything over the years to maintain a professional relationship with the federation structure, which is basically reduced to one person. In addition to not listening or clarifying, President Jorge Fernandes assumes numerous functions, even imposing technical and selection decisions that show a lack of respect towards the coaches themselves. At this point, we have exhausted our options and we feel exhausted as well (…) On July 13, we wrote a letter to the president of the Federation expressing our concern regarding our preparation and its impact, both physical and emotional, ”he continues. , before explaining suggestions such as participation in international internships and competitions outside the country according to the needs and planning of each athlete, changing the requirements for participation in internships to a monthly one and adjusting the amount paid for trips through official tables transport subsidy value
“As a result of the letter, a meeting was scheduled (held on August 3) that should have been with the president, but, to our astonishment, it ended up with the presence of coaches of all levels -except coach Pedro Soares- by the Federation. secretary, Sergiu Oleinic, by the person in charge of marketing and social media, Inês Ribeiro, by the coach of the Paralympic National Team, with the vice president Sérgio Pina, and also with the president’s son Jorge Fernandes, now youth judo coordinator. This created an atmosphere of intimidation! Despite the climate of oppression that was felt, the letter was read and the request for a solution to the three points suggested and mentioned above was reinforced. In this meeting, the president once again reinforced the compulsory presence in 70/80% of the internships, under the threat of not being summoned if this parameter is not met”, the signatories accuse again.
“We remind you that these internships have been held since June 2020, every week, in Coimbra, the city where the president of the FPJ resides. At that time, the clubs were operating on a conditional basis due to the limitations imposed by the pandemic. We were also unable to carry out international internships, which were not carried out. Two years went by. What we recognized at the time as an excellent idea by the Portuguese Judo Federation and that was – we reinforced! – a temporary solution, now it is something that causes us emotional wear, because every week, most of the time on weekends, we are forced to be present. That is to say, in one year, in 70/80% of the 52 (!!) practices”, progress, before going into practical examples and other accusations against the entity.
- “Recently, the athlete Anri Egutidze missed boarding school because he had a medical appointment and health exam scheduled for the same date, being prevented from taking an Olympic qualifying test, arguing that he would not be in good health. This decision was made without any club or Federation doctor considering the athlete unfit. It would have been, it is concluded, a retaliation for having been absent from the internship;
- At these rallies there are sometimes only eight athletes present to train, and during the winter it can be seven degrees inside the hall, and heating is only available sporadically. We’ve been dealing with all of this, week after week, focused on trying to get better. Have the obligation to be present in Coimbra prevent us from participating in international internships and training with the best in the world and consequently to be stronger and better prepared for the competitions of the world circuit, in the stages to which we aspire and to which the Portuguese are accustomed (…);
- Recently, the athlete Telma Monteiro saw her participation confirmed at the last minute in an internship in Alicante, having a journey of more than ten hours, in total, for the return trip and being later alerted by the Federation official Sergiu Oleinic for the expenses of the same (…) For the same internship, the athlete Catarina Costa had to travel by car with the coach, nine hours of travel, because they said that now the flights would be expensive and that it would be very complicated, therefore, to go to the internship. Once again, the federation was going to buy flights at the last minute;
- The president asks the coaches to control their athletes so that they do not speak. It happened, for example, with the president asking the coach Ana Hormigo to control her athletes. Ban athletes from talking about mental health so as not to give a weak image because ‘the athlete is a hero’, as the president said to the athlete Bárbara Timo, showing an enormous lack of sensitivity not only towards the athlete -diagnosed this year with depression-, but also with the subject of mental health itself, which is now very present in international sport. In the aforementioned meeting, the President referred to the athletes Bárbara Timo, Rodrigo Lopes and Rochele Nunes as follows: ‘Bárbara, Rochele, Rodrigo, I am surprised that they have been here for three years. They came from Brazil, they were ungrateful to us signing this letter (…) You in Brazil didn’t even drink a Coca-Cola and now you come here, we give you a hand and you want everything’ (…)
- The president banned athlete Anri Egutidze from speaking Georgian – mother tongue – with another athlete also from Georgia (…) We saw several times the president speak loudly and in a way that shows a lack of respect towards the national coach Ana Hormigo (…) The last time he asked us to sign the accounts report 2021, the athlete Telma Monteiro, who had received the report after the afternoon training – like all the other colleagues who were ordered to sign – saved it to read. The next morning, the president, accompanied by the secretary of the Federation, intercepted her on the way to the gym to ask her what her problem was, since she had not yet signed the document. When she reported that she would need clarification on the values presented, the president did not allow her to train before sitting down and discussing the values. Athlete Telma Monteiro said that she did not agree with the scholarship money being handled that way, to which Jorge Fernandes replied: ‘That’s your opinion, but you have to sign it!’ (…) The president who often says: ‘You can complain to whoever you want because I am the president-elect.’ Can a democratically elected president run anyway? Manage the grants anyway? Talk anyway?”
“We ask for respect. We ask that we be given the option to train better so that we can aspire to better results for Portugal. We demand that the oppression and retaliation cease! For us, this is not a personal matter. We have lived together as well as possible and respected the role of the President of the FPJ, for the good of the sport and the country we love; we do not always feel that we receive with reciprocity. At this time, we suggest that the Olympic judoka scholarships be managed by the Portuguese Olympic Committee, in harmony with the clubs and coaches, so that there is justice. The activity plan forms and the account reports that we are obliged to sign do not comply with what we consider to be responsible, efficient and fair management”, he sums up after specifying the problems.
“We have written this letter so that the entities that govern sport in our country help us to reach a solution, otherwise we do not see the conditions to continue complying with the demands of high competition and Olympic classification (…) There are no conditions to evolve in the current operating regime of the FPJ. We want a healthy, ambitious and demanding judo ecosystem, but one that respects the role of each one, without discriminating against naturalized and totally Portuguese athletes. We feel like we are stagnating as a sport, both our generation and future ones. It is urgent to save the classification and participation for the next big competitions and define a careful management of our sporting and economic career. There is no time to waste!” he concludes.
Source: Observadora
