Latest / The Front / A glamour sport’s dark secret

Transcript

A glamour sport’s dark secret · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's Monday, December sixteenth. China's economy is in a slump
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and that's bad news for Australia. With Jim Chalmers to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: reveal in Wednesday's midyear budget update, mining exports are down
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: by one hundred billion dollars and company tax revenue has
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: slumped more than eight billion. That exclusive is live right
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: now at the Australian dot com dot Au. Olympic styles,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: including gold medalists Nina Kennedy and Steve Hooker, claim their
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: allegations of abuse by superstar pole vaulting coach Alex Paranov
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: were not properly investigated by sporting authorities. Today the athletes
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: who say they won't be silent anymore, the stadium will erupted.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: At the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics, pole vaulter Nina
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Kennedy captivated Australia's imagination.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, oh yes, oh yes, wow. Oh it's just such
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: an incredible moment. Well here she use Australia your new
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Golden Girl.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Hello everyone, wake up.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I think we're awake. I think we're awake, But are
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: you or are you dreaming. I'm not, I'm here, I'm
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: a gold medalist.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: That is so sick. Jessica Hallern is the Australian's chief
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: sports writer and she was in Paris when Kennedy jumped
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: four point nine meters that's just over sixteen feet, about
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the height of a giraffe.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: This sport is insane. It's actually really dangerous. I think
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the statistics are that at least one person dies a
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: year from competing in this sport. To do it, you
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: have to be completely and utterly mentally focused. And she
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: is brave, and she is gritty, and she is strong,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: and she is one of the greatest athletic competitors we've
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: ever had. And so that night was a huge moment
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: in Australian sport. We've had an incredible run when it
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: comes to Powell Wolters. The previous Olympic champion was Steve Hooker,
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: and both Nina and Steve Hooker at one point in
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: their lives shared the same coach, and that coach is
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Alex Parnov.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: On Saturday, subscribers to the Australian dot com dot au
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: saw a video of Alex Parov, a middle aged man
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: and Nina Kennedy, then aged about nineteen, standing by a
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: sports field as other athletes train in the background. It's
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: a World Junior competition back in twenty sixteen. Paranov raises
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: his hand to Nana Kennedy's shoulder and pats her on
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the back, and then he runs his hand down, lingering
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: on her buttocks.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: That video was specifically taken to capture another pole vaulter
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: in action, but what it did at the same time
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: it caught Alex Paranov inappropriately touching Nana Kennedy and that
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: became the center of a complaint in twenty sixteen by
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: coach Paul Burgess, who was an amazing pop vultary himself.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: He jumped over the magic six meter mark he competed
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: at the Olympics in two thousand and eight, and he
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: saw red on that He knew it was wrong, and
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: for some time he had suspected that Alex was behaving inappropriately.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Back then, Parov was working for the West Straight Institute
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: of Sport, that's part of the network of elite government
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: funded sporting academies that had a lot to do with
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Australia's success in Olympic sports. Paul Burgess went to the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: WAIS with his concerns.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Alex Panov just got off with a warning. Nothing was done.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Paranov was a big deal in the world of pole vaulting.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Since coaching Tatiana Grigoryeva to Silva at the two thousand
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Sydney Olympics, He'd become an integral of Australia's success in
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the sport.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: He was regarded as the best technical pole vault coach
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: in the world.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: In twenty nineteen, Alex Paranov suddenly left his job as
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: head of the pole vault program at the WAIS, and
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: at the time the institute didn't explain exactly what had happened.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: It just said Paranov had breached his employment contract and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: that allegations against him had been proven, but it didn't
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: say what they were. What discovered as she started following
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the thread of this story she's reported with our colleague
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Stephen Rice, was that numerous athletes had been complaining, including
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Steve Hooker and Nina Kennedy.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: What we can see from documents was that Nina Kennedy
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: was raising Alex Parnov's inappropriate behavior and that came to
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: a head in twenty nineteen when finally an investigation was
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: commissioned into Alex Parnov's behavior.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But the investigation was as mysterious as the outcome. Several
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: athletes said they weren't even approached to talk.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Olympic gold medalist Steve Hooker said he complained and complained
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: about not only Alex taking a slice of his earnings,
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: which was against the rules, but he also said he
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: was witnessed to inappropriate behavior and had a number of
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: women confide in him that they were inappropriately touched by Alex.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: But when he got his witness statement back, he was
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: a star to see that the weight was put on
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: the financial aspect of his complaint and that complaints around
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the women were really diminished. That is his account of
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: what he believed was inappropriate behavior by Alex Parnov. The
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: official WAIS press release said that he had stood down
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: for inappropriate behavior. But this was very confusing to everybody
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen because what was it. Was it the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: financial skimming of their paychecks or was it the inappropriate
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: touching as some have alleged. The investigators didn't get the
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: chance to interview Alex Panov because he resigned. Nothing was
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: made public about why Alex Panov left ways and that
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: still angered people, especially Paul Burgess. Now in this time,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: when Alex leaves, Paul Burgess then steps up and becomes
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: the coach of Nina Kennedy and he starts to lead
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: her on this incredible trajectory to success. At the same time,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: he's really starting to fight with some demons where he
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: feels like the West Australian Institute of Sport really should
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: have done more to protect the athletes, but also to
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: hold Alex Paranov to public account.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Kennedy told Jesson Ricey she believes the WAIS failed to
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: bring to light the seriousness of the alleged misconduct, and
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: she said there weren't adequate repercussions for Parov. She said,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I don't believe the leadership board had the best interests
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: of my well being at heart. The Australian has repeatedly
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: asked Alex Paranov to respond to the allegations, but no
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: response has been forthcoming. Coming up the Instagram star speaking
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: up for the first time live at Theaustralian dot com
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: dot au right now is the story of amanned up Bisk.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: She's a fitness trainer and exercise physiologist on Instagram, she's
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: got six hundred and thirty five thousand followers. But what
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: many of them don't know is that bisc used to
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: be a promising pole vaulter with Olympic dreams. She alluded
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to this just recently in a video about confronting her fears.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: For years, I was scared to get back into pop vaulting.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: I told myself it's been too long. I was too old,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: that I didn't belong anymore.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: She competed at the Dalcomwealth Games and she was on
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: her way to compete in London. But what she tells
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: us today was that she was subjected to an awful
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: assault at the hands of Alex Paranov. As well as
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the usual inappropriate touching, the inappropriate comments about her body,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: she also suffered a horrendous eating disorder where she was
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: to lose weight. And she stands at one hundred and
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: seventy eight centimeters and at one stage she was forty
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: eight kilos. It's just extraordinary. So she talks about this
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: just mentally breaking down over the course of her career
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: and feeling like she was left really broken.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Did she attempt to complain to any authorities about him?
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: No, she never has. And when I spoke to her,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: she said, if you had have called me last week,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: I would not have been able to tell my story.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: And it was only when she read the Weekend Australian's story,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: where we had seven on the record statements or full
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: accounts of what these women had gone through when they
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: were coached by Alex Panov and the devastating effect it
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: had on them that it's only when she read that
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: she felt like she had the strength to tell her story.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: And as she said to me, I hadn't told a soul,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: not even my mom or my partner until now.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I'm doing something I love again and the fear has
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: now turned into passion. If there's something you've been putting off,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: just start. I promise showing up for yourself is always
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: worth it.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: The allegations against Paranov include sexually touching young athletes, inviting
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: them to his hotel room where he'd be wearing nothing
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: but a towel, asking to get into bed with them.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: All this from someone they'd worked with since adolescence. A
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: lot of them have used the word groomed. A lot
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: of them tell stories about him telling them that he's.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: In love with them. Some people say, to me, it
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: all feels a bit innocuous at the time, but when
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: you've put it all together and then you find yourself
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: in a situation where you're in a hotel room alone
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: with him, or apartment alone with him, and he's propositioning you. Yeah,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: a lot of them have broken down as they've told
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: their stories.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Parnov also allegedly obsessively critiqued their weight, demanding constant skinfold
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: tests and ways.
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Aaron Boxel, who was an athlete in his squad in
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: the early two thousand, says she still suffers a needing
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: disorder to this day. There seems to be a lot
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: of obsession around that. He would often walk up to
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: them and grab their stomachs and say, you're too fat.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: We're talking athletes that weigh sixty kilos and instructed to
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: lose ten kilos, and so they would. I don't think
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: any woman was missed in that training squad, the skin folds, constantly,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: being told to weigh themselves every single day to tell
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: him how much they weigh in return, and he would
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: say whether that was okay or not. Where is alex
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Panov now? Alex Panov is in Russia, We've attempted to
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: contact him a number of times and we've heard nothing back.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: We know he has been back in the country in
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: recent times. We know he has met with former Western
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Australian Institute of Sport leaders in that time, just sharing
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: a friendly coffee, and that has deeply outset a number
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: of people.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, NTA Kennedy and Paul Burgess went
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: back to the WAIS and asked again for a public
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: explanation about what had happened with Parnov, and after Jess
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and Rice's story was published on Saturday, Athletics Australia released
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: a statement acknowledging The Australian's reports of what it described
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: as totally unacceptable and deeply distressing behavior, and asking anyone
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: with information to come forward. Jess, you've spent a lot
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of years reporting about oversight and governance in sport. There
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: seems to be a theme that it's lacking. What's your
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: take on the way authorities responded to these allegations.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I think that these organizations have in the past pushed
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: to keep these incidents secret. I think they didn't want
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: any of this out there. I think it's a really
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: big problem for them now.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: You can read this investigation by Jessica Hallerin and Stephen
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Rice right now at the Australian dot com dot au