The acquittal of a French judo coach who had been accused of domestic violence against a gold medal-winning Olympian has caused outrage among sports stars in the country.
Margaux Pinot accused her partner and coach Alain Schmitt of attacking her in her home on the outskirts of the capital Paris.
The 27-year-old said she had been wrestled to the ground, punched repeatedly, had her head smashed into the floor and been the victim of attempted strangulation.
Pinot, who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year, suffered a broken nose and had evident facial injuries when she spoke to police on Sunday morning, after escaping the flat with the help of neighbours.
The case was hastily taken to court with a hearing on Thursday, where the state prosecutor sought a one-year suspended sentence for what he described as an incident of "very serious violence".
However, the judge decided there wasn't enough evidence to prove that Schmitt, who had denied the allegations, was guilty.
Schmitt, 38, claimed it had been a fight between lovers, and that Pinot had been the one to instigate it.
Pinot had posted a photo of her injuries on social media, in which she said she thought she was going to die and claimed it was her judo skills which had saved her life.
She later told a press conference: "He grabbed me by the hair, pulled me to the ground, got astride me and started to pull out my hair and bang my head on the ground. He wanted to strangle me."
Schmitt appeared at his own press conference with bruising around his eye, and claimed the Olympian had "behavioural problems" and had punched and pushed him.
"In my life, I’ve never punched anyone… It’s not possible for me to have punched someone and they ran away and I caught up with them – it’s not possible," he said.
"And all of that after I supposedly pushed her head into the ground? It’s a joke… She's lying of course.
"She jumped on me and grabbed me by the collar. I moved back, she pushed me against a doorframe. I banged my head. I got up a bit dazed. She punched me and it escalated. We banged into walls, a radiator, a door."
Pinot responded to Schmitt's claims by saying he was trying to paint her as a "hysterical woman".
Fellow French judo stars Teddy Riner and Clarisse Agbegnenou have voiced their support for Pinot, while the country's sports minister Roxana Maracineanu said she "is clearly the victim".
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has also publicly backed Pinot.
