Paris (AFP)
Nathalie Péchalat was elected new president of the French Federation of Ice Sports (FFSG) on Saturday, where she will have to restore confidence after the scandal of sexual violence, but her election took place in confusion on Saturday in Paris, the other three candidates requesting postponement due to the coronavirus epidemic.
The 36-year-old former ice dance champion succeeds Didier Gailhaguet, who has ruled French skating almost continuously for more than two decades since 1998 (except between 2004 and 2007), but who has been forced at the resignation in early February because of the scandal that hit the federation hard.
According to the official count of the FFSG, Nathalie Péchalat was elected by absolute majority, from the 1st round, with 504 votes (out of 872 possible), against no vote for the only other candidate still registered, the short-track trainer , Gilles Jouanny.
For his part, the former figure skating star, Philippe Candeloro, was elected to the Federal Council from one of the vacant positions submitted to the ballot on Saturday.
"I announced on the phone during the GA that I would withdraw my candidacy," Gilles Jouanny had said earlier to AFP, explaining that he could not travel due to a case of coronavirus in his building.
The two other candidates, the president of the Angers club Damien Boyer-Gibaud and the former bobsledder, Michel-Ange Marie-Calixte, had officially retired before the vote.
- "Handling" -
"We categorically refuse to associate ourselves, as well as our supporters, with a new scandal which strikes our federation: that of the manipulation of the election in order to install a previously designated candidate", denounced Gilles Jouanny, Damien Boyer-Gibaud and Michel-Ange Marie-Calixte, recalling that the government prohibited gatherings of more than 100 people to stem the epidemic of coronavirus.
According to them, the general assembly could not therefore take place in good conditions, even if two rooms had been planned, in the Salons de l'Aveyron, in Paris.
160 club presidents were invited to vote, physically at the extraordinary general meeting or by proxy, their weight in votes depending on the size of their structure.
Didier Gailhaguet's sixth term came to an abrupt end after several former skaters, including ex-champion Sarah Abitbol, revealed that they were victims of rape and sexual assault, committed by different coaches, when they were teenagers.
Gailhaguet found himself under pressure, blamed for his proximity to one of the accused coaches, Gilles Beyer. Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu had called for her resignation.
The election of Nathalie Péchalat, double European champion (2011, 2012) and double world bronze medalist (2012, 2014) is a first, never a woman having never acceded to the presidency of the FFSG.
More generally, it is extremely rare for a woman to rise to this level of responsibility: out of 36 Olympic federations, only two are now chaired by women, the other being fencing.
The FFSG is still in the crosshairs of the Ministry of Sports, which started a procedure of withdrawal of the delegation when the scandal of sexual violence broke out and launched an administrative investigation, still in progress.
© 2020 AFP