Paris (AFP)
Nathalie Péchalat, elected head of the French Ice Sports Federation (FFSG) on Saturday, embodies a modern face for French skating, weakened by the recent scandal of sexual violence and its management by its president Didier Gailhaguet, long irremovable.
Woman, 30s, former ice dance champion, seen even in celebrity magazines with her husband, star actor Jean Dujardin: in terms of image, the contrast is striking between Péchalat and Gailhaguet, 66, pushed upon resignation after more than two decades almost without interruption spent as president of the FFSG.
At 36, Péchalat becomes one of only two women presidents of Olympic federations - out of 36 - with Isabelle Lamour, who heads the fencing one. At the FFSG level, this is a first. In his eyes, however, "it remains anecdotal". His youth is also very unusual. Nevertheless it will be necessary to wait to know if it could open the way to a new generation of sports leaders.
Once Gailhaguet's resignation was approved, Péchalat did not hesitate long - just four days - to get started. It was not to the taste of the collective of former French skaters, including Philippe Candeloro, Sarah Abitbol and Gwendal Peizerat, who regretted that she had "preferred to present herself individually".
- "Surprise" -
"Candidating for the presidency of the FFSG was a project but rather long-term. I had no ambition to do it so quickly, but the recent events have accelerated this process, justifies Péchalat. Things suddenly aligned, and that seemed logical to me to commit myself. "
The world of skating, in which she has been evolving for thirty years, says that he did not know her presidential ambition at all.
"It was a surprise, it was almost unexpected that someone like that, a former top athlete (introduces himself). It makes sense," said Guillaume Cizeron, quadruple world champion in ice dance with Gabriella Papadakis, who supported his candidacy.
"She was always there to carry the voice of the athletes," recalls, however, the 2011 European figure skating champion Florent Amodio.
"We knew she was smart. She pulled out of the game, she jumped at the opportunity, she thought it could be an opportunity for her, considers Candeloro. If she has time to spend in the federation and that she thinks she can get things done, she was right. "
If the former skater "finds it a bit odd in behavior and spirit" that she doesn't "call on us as Olympic medalists" and waits for her to prove herself, "that was one of the names that we had issued from the start in our collegial reflection, "he admits, however.
- "Not his tongue in his pocket" -
All describe it as having a strong character: "not his tongue in his pocket" and knowing "to go into the bacon". "When she needs to say shit, she can say it, with or without the forms," Candeloro summed up to AFP.
Come to figure skating as a child, at seven, Péchalat has "never left the ice" since. It was in Lyon, where she started "living alone at 15", that her association with Fabian Bourzat took shape in 2000. With her partner, Péchalat became double European champion (2011 and 2012) and double world bronze medalist (2012 and 2014) by exiling successively in Moscow, between 2008 and 2011, and in the United States. But the Olympic podium was refused to them (7th at the Olympics-2010, 4th at the Olympics-2014) until their sporting retirement in 2014.
When the competition was over, the ice dancer turned into a TV consultant, set up skating courses, stayed on the Athletes' Commission of the French Olympic Committee, became an ambassador for the association against "Colossus with feet of clay" sexual violence, or gave conferences in companies, on the theme of doubt.
Initially discreet when skating was overtaken by sexual violence cases a month ago, she ended up speaking in a forum signed by around fifty French sportsmen.
Out of the ice, her notoriety grew with her participation in the show "Dance with the stars" in 2014. And especially because of her relationship with Jean Dujardin - whom she recently affirmed "to support in all her artistic choices" during the controversy surrounding the award given to Roman Polanski's latest film for the Cesars, in which the actor plays a leading role.
© 2020 AFP