The former Olympic athlete Federico Martín Molinari was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison, suspended execution for the crime of grooming against a teenage girl who was a student at his gym in Don Torcuato.
In the case, one of the pieces of evidence analyzed by the judiciary were the messages the former gymnast sent to the young woman via Instagram, whose screenshots were added to the file and later published by TN.
The conviction against Federico Molinari
The sentence was issued by Judge Mariela Quintana, head of Criminal Court No. 3 of San Isidro. In addition to the penalty, Molinari must establish residence for two years, submit to supervision by the Patronato de Liberados and undergo psychological treatment with a gender-based violence perspective.
The accusation was led by prosecutor Gabriela Conde and attorney María Emilia García Márquez, the victim’s representative, while the investigation was driven by prosecutor Gonzalo Acosta, head of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Related to Human Trafficking, Child Pornography, and Grooming of San Isidro.
The complaint had been filed in March 2023 by the mother of a teenager from Mendoza who, at the time of the events, was 16 years old and had moved to Buenos Aires to train in high-performance gymnastics under the orders of the former athlete.
The messages included in the case
According to TN, among the evidence in the file are screenshots of the conversations the teenager had with Molinari via Instagram, taken from her mobile phone.
In those exchanges, the former gymnast wrote comments on photographs that the young woman shared on her social networks. In one of the messages you could read: “You look very pretty; it did you good to connect with your family”, referring to a trip the teenager had undertaken with her loved ones.
On another occasion he reacted to a post with the phrase: “You brightened my day”, while in another exchange he wrote: “When I see you at the gym I’m going to turn red as a tomato… haha”.
According to the publication TN, one of the messages that drew the most attention was the one in which he asked the teenager: “Switch it to ephemeral mode because I’m toast”, alluding to Instagram’s feature that makes messages disappear once viewed.
These conversations formed part of the material analyzed during the judicial investigation and were entered as evidence in the case.
How the investigation progressed
The events for which he was convicted occurred between February 2021 and February 2022. Two years later, in March 2023, the teenager’s mother filed the complaint.
In April 2025, Prosecutor Gonzalo Acosta requested the case be brought to trial, considering that there were sufficient elements to proceed under the crime provided for in Article 131 of the Penal Code, which punishes the recruitment of minors through digital means for sexual purposes.
After the verdict was announced, the victim’s attorney, María Emilia García Márquez, stated that the sentence represents a judicial acknowledgment of the alleged facts and highlighted the teenager’s bravery in pursuing the case.
For his part, Hernán Navarro, executive director of Grooming Argentina, told TN that the sentence again underlines that this type of crime can occur in contexts where there is a relationship of trust between adults and minors, such as sports, and he deemed it necessary to discuss whether current criminal penalties reflect the severity of the harm caused by grooming.
