More than 40 people have accused Lopes of watching children in the shower, touching them indecently and asking them to perform sexual acts.

Gold medal winner at the 2011 Pan American Games, Petrix Barbosa, who is now 26, told Globo TV: “I woke up more than once with his hand down my pants,” before saying that Lopes often asked him and his team-mates to show him their genitals.

The Sao Paulo state security department have confirmed that police are investigating Lopes but declined to provide details.

Lopes, who has denied the allegations, was removed from his post of coach of the Brazilian gymnastics team a month before Brazil’s home Olympics of Rio 2016 due to allegations of abuse.

Lopes has most recently been working at the Clube MESC community centre near Sao Paulo, but the club said they fired Lopes after the accusations were aired on Globo TV.

Athletes have also hit out at the Brazilian Gymnastics Confederation (CBG), whose officials, the athletes claim, knew of the abuse that was supposedly taking place.

When rumours of the abuse appeared in Brazilian media last month, the CBG said they were taking urgent measures to tackle sexual abuse.

“No case of harassment or abuse will remain without rigorous investigation and eventual punishment,” they stated.

The allegations against Lopes have led to Caixa Economica Federal (CEF), one of the Brazilian gymnastics team’s biggest sponsors, to review their contract with the team.

CEF began their sponsorship of the team in 2006 and have since pledged to invest more than R$20 million (£4 million/$5.5 million/€4.6 million) until 2020.

The allegations against Lopes are just one of several to have surfaced since former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to 300 years in prison for sexual abuse in February.