The German Swimming Association has suspended national water jump coach Lutz Buschkow in connection with the abuse affair involving former world-class jumper Jan Hempel.
“The current national diving coach Lutz Buschkow is accused in the documentation of having knowledge of Jan Hempel’s allegations against his then coach Werner Langer at the time. The DSV board is currently examining this allegation intensively,” said the association in a first statement on Thursday evening. At the present time, the inspection of files that has already been carried out has not produced any such indications, it said.
The process of clarification is not yet complete. “Nevertheless, due to its high moral standards, the DSV board decided to release Mr. Buschkow from his position as national diving coach in the DSV with immediate effect until the facts have been finally clarified.”
In a documentary by ARD entitled “Abused – Sexualized Violence in German Swimming”, Hempel, Olympic silver medalist in Atlanta in 1996, reported publicly for the first time in moving words about the allegations of sexual abuse against the late Werner Langer – and about the fact that Hempel Buschkow makes allegations when dealing with it.
He was abused for the first time at the age of eleven, and Langer’s actions lasted from 1982 to 1996. “It started with touching, once a month, until there was sexual activity every day,” says the 50-year-old. It all went so far that “I lay in bed with a fever of 40 degrees and that didn’t bother him at all.” He endured the abuse, “because he said things like: ‘If you do that, then you have this afternoon off.’”
