An Olympic judo wrestler has defended her coach after footage emerged on social media of him slapping her.
Per Daily Mail, German athlete Martyna Trajdos was filmed being shaken and struck across the cheek by her coach, Claudiu Pusa, prior to her competing against Hungarian Szofi Ozbas in the round of 32 for the women's 63kg category on Tuesday, July 27.
Take a look at this video of the incident here:The video was widely shared on Twitter, with a number of commenters expressing their outrage over what they perceived as an assault.
One Twitter user captioned the clip: "What the hell is going on at the Olympics!? [sic]"
A second critic added: "In what setting is this EVER okay? [sic]"
A third wrote: "US women athletes are not the only ones unsafe from sexual predators among other athletes and staff.
"This toxic German coach’s violent treatment of judo athlete Martina Trajdos should get him thrown out on his a*** and I would bet he's protected by their Olympic team."
Finally, someone else added: "Name and shame that b****** coach who hits an #Olympic competitor #Germany #judo #63kg [sic]"
However, Trajdos herself has since defended her coach, taking to her official Instagram account to insist that the slap was consensual; part of a pre-agreed motivational ritual to boost her performance.
In a statement made to her 7,500 followers, Trajdos uploaded the offending clip and captioned it: "Looks like this was not hard enough! I wish I could have made a different headline today.
"As I already said that’s the ritual which I chose pre-competition! My coach is just doing what I want him to do to fire me up!"
The 32-year-old former European champion was beaten by Ozbas, which eliminated her from the competition.
However, HuffPost reports that the International Judo Federation has not looked kindly on the ritual, and has since issued an official warning to the coach.
A spokesperson for the organization stated that judo was "an educational sport and, as such, cannot tolerate such behavior" on the coach's part.
