Ten-time French national champion pairs figure skater Sarah Abitbol says she was raped by her former coach and that he continued to work with skaters for decades afterward; now she is using her voice to help others fight. (7:35)

Sarah Abitbol, a 10-time French national champion pairs figure skater, alleges that she was sexually abused by her then-coach when she was a teenager.

Nearly three decades after the alleged abuse began, Abitbol, now 44, told the story for the first time in her recent memoir, "Such a Long Silence," in which she went public with accusations against Gilles Beyer, who was also a former French figure skating champion and national team official.

"I've been raped when I was 15 years old," Abitbol said in an interview with ABC News and ESPN. "I was in my room with my teddy bear, sleeping, and my coach came, and it's happening."

The fallout was swift. Beyer was accused of misconduct by several other women. Didier Gailhaguet, the president of the French Federation of Ice Sports, was forced to resign. Paris prosecutors have launched an investigation.

And Abitbol has become the latest former elite athlete to accuse her sport's leaders of protecting skating over skaters, sparking another tragic reckoning.

Beyer's alleged abuse began in 1990, Abitbol said, at a summer camp for young athletes and continued for two years.

"He was sitting on my bed and he wake me up and he was speaking to me very slowly," she said, "and after he come to me and he began to kiss me and it was really a nightmare."

Former French figure skater Sarah Abitbol's allegations of sexual abuse by her former coach forced multiple changes in the French Federation of Ice Sports. Panoramic via ZUMA Press

For years, Abitbol kept the alleged abuse a secret at Beyer's behest.

"He told me, 'Sarah it's a secret so don't tell everyone.' And I felt guilty. Like it's my mistake, it's my fault, I really felt guilty," Abitbol said. "I never spoke to everyone. Nobody knew."

Abitbol said that when she first attempted to report Beyer's alleged abuse to the French sports ministry in 2008, she was rebuffed, while Beyer continued coaching young skaters.

"They explained [to] me that maybe, if it's true, I need to go [through the national police] to do something. And, so, they didn't pay attention," Abitbol said. "So every time I tried to speak, every time doors closed."

Abitbol's story shares striking similarities to one that has made headlines in the United States. When Craig Maurizi filed a report, in 1999, alleging that he was sexually abused by prominent figure skating coach Richard Callaghan two decades earlier, the U.S. Figure Skating Association dismissed the complaint on technical grounds, permitting Callaghan to continue coaching.

Last year, another former skater, Adam Schmidt, filed a lawsuit against Callaghan and U.S. Figure Skating, alleging that he was sexually abused by Callaghan in the years after Maurizi's initial complaint. Callaghan, who has repeatedly denied any allegations of misconduct, was initially banned from coaching by the U.S. Center for SafeSport following a complaint filed by Maurizi, but that sanction was overturned by an arbitrator and reduced to a three-year suspension.

"My story," Maurizi told lawmakers when he testified before Congress in 2018, "is a case history of the power of abusers and organizations to silence powerless child victims of sexual abuse in the relentless pursuit of money and medals."

Sarah Abitbol is a 10-time French national champion in figure skating. JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP via Getty Images

Following the publication of Abitbol's memoir, Beyer admitted to having an "intimate" and "inappropriate" relationship with Abitbol and apologized. But troubling questions remain for the sport's institutions.

Beyer has been removed from his position at a local club, but he is now reportedly facing accusations from at least three other women. Beyer declined to comment further to ABC News and ESPN.

Gailhaguet, the longtime head of the French Federation of Ice Sports, has resigned amid public pressure, but he continued to defend his handling of the allegations against Beyer, despite revelations that Beyer had been the subject of previous investigations for misconduct with minors.

"I committed errors," Gailhaguet ultimately conceded, "but not wrongdoing." He also declined to comment further to ABC News and ESPN.

Beyer was never charged, and though an administrative review by the sports ministry concluded that the misconduct was serious, Beyer continued coaching young skaters.

"For sure there was a cover-up," Abitbol said. "Because it's not possible to, to put again this coach in a club and near some children."

Abitbol, meanwhile, is hopeful that the ongoing investigation will result in a prosecution.

"I hope we can put this coach in jail," she said. "It's dramatic what he did."

It all depends, she said, on whether other women follow her lead.

"We have some victims, but for now, they are, it's hard to speak," she said. "So, they are afraid, they feel guilty like me, like when I wasn't able to speak. So I'm trying to help them to fight."

Ibtissem Guenfoud is a Paris-based reporter for ABC News. Pete Madden is an investigative producer for ABC News. Tracy J. Wholf is an investigative producer for ESPN.