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| - France's sports minister Roxana Maracineanu said on Friday she was introducing tougher checks on the two million volunteers who run French amateur sport as part of a campaign against sexual abuse. Maracineanu has been on the attack since skaters, starting with Olympic gold medallist Sarah Abitbol, said they had been sexually abused as minors. On Friday she had called "a national convention on sexual abuse in sport." She began by reading out excerpts from victims' accounts which she called "raw, violent words that it's time to hear, at last." "Our system has been flawed for too long, on all levels. Let's not wait, let's act now," Maracineanu said. "French sport must act as one movement," the minister said, before chiding those sports federations that had not turned up. Only 11 of the more than 35 French Olympic sports were represented on Friday. "The presidents who were not there for X or Y reason, I hope they will be here tomorrow," she said. "It's not a problem of women, it's a problem of leadership, highest leadership." Maracineanu said she planned to present a detailed roadmap in May but announced some initial measures. One was to "generalise" the criminal record checks for the almost two million volunteers who administer sport for the more than two million registered participants in France. The French Football Federation started a trial of such a system in a regional league last year. The minister said she was doubling the staff of a ministerial listening unit where victims or others can report problems to six and had appointed a "ministerial delegate". Abitbol also spoke to the assembly. She initiated the skating scandal when her book "Such a long silence", describing how a coach had sexually abused her when she was a minor, was published at the end of January. "I never imagined that I would speak out without shame. Shame turns into pride, it's my greatest victory, my Olympic gold medal," she said. es-dga/smr/pb/td
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