I WAS KISSED INAPPROPRIATELY BY A COACH – EX-WORLD CHAMPION PITTMAN
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Former track and field world champion Jana Pittman of Australia has revealed that she was kissed by a coach while competing in athletics, a revelation that is similar to the scandal engulfing Spanish football.
Spanish prosecutors have launched an investigation into football executive Luis Rubiales after he kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the Women’s World Cup final medal ceremony.
Rubiales’s kiss has sparked a massive backlash, but he has so far refused to resign, despite being asked to by the Spanish football federation.
“I have been kissed inappropriately by a coach, not mine, an international coach where it was a cultural norm in that setting,” Pittman, now 40, told a talk show for Australian broadcaster ABC.
“And I didn’t really think anything of it until I witnessed this on television.”
Presently, 81 Spanish players, including Hermoso, are on strike until the leadership changes at Spain’s football federation.
Hermoso has said the incident left her feeling “vulnerable and like the victim of an assault”.
Spanish football great Andres Iniesta has said the World Cup triumph of the women’s team has been “tarnished” by Rubiales’s behaviour.
Pittman did not name the coach who kissed her while she was an athlete.
“I didn’t even reflect on it in that moment, I knew him quite well, he was a very friendly coach, so I didn’t take it personally,” she said.
“In that context, it wasn’t meant in a way that was discriminatory against me.”
However, the Australian said she now looks differently on the incident in the wake of the Women’s World Cup final.
Pittman, who is now a doctor, said it was important to speak up to ensure professional sport is a safe place for women.
“If we don’t stand up for it in a public setting, it’s really a misdemeanour for women globally,” she added.
Pittman said the “hardest and saddest thing” about the Rubiales scandal is that it casts a shadow over “what this incredible World Cup means for women in sport”.
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