Arrived in the spring of 2020, the outgoing president had been elected following the stormy resignation of Didier Gailhaguet, accused of having covered up a coach implicated in rape and sexual assault.

According to the 38-year-old double European champion in ice dancing, the 68-year-old former strongman of French skating would try to return behind the scenes of the federation through the only opponent in the running for this election, Gwenaëlle Noury, a novice candidate.

Asked by AFP, neither Gwenaëlle Noury ​​nor Didier Gailhaguet responded.

"He does not let go," laments Péchalat.

"He is ready for anything. It is well known, he has never worked for the general interest."

"Clearly he's trying to come back through the back door. He's quite incredible, he hasn't given up on the idea of ​​coming back", blows a regular sports arcana to AFP.

In the press, Gailhaguet however defended himself from wanting to influence the election.

"I have nothing to say, I left federal life (...) I am not a candidate for anything," he told the JDD.

Gailhaguet ruled the rinks almost continuously for more than two decades.

But after the explosion caused by accusations of sexual violence in sport, his sixth term had ended suddenly in 2020.

Former French champion Sarah Abitbol had accused her former trainer Gilles Beyer of rape and sexual assault when she was a teenager.

Implicated for his closeness to Beyer, Gailhaguet had been called to resign by the Minister of Sports at the time, Roxana Maracineanu.

"Trojan horse"

Barely elected, the new federal team had voted new statutes limiting the number of terms to three and making him de facto ineligible for the post of president.

Despite this, nothing prevents him from occupying other positions within the Federation.

The president of the Ice Sports Federation Nathalie Péchalat on the steps of the Elysée Palace on March 13, 2022 Ludovic MARIN AFP / Archives

For several weeks, according to Péchalat, he would therefore be active behind the scenes to elect the sole opponent of the outgoing president, Gwenaëlle Noury, president of the Lorient skating club.

For the Péchalat camp, Gwenaëlle Noury ​​would be Gailhaguet's "Trojan Horse".

“As he is ineligible, the idea is to ensure that she is elected president of the federation and then that he is appointed secretary general or general manager and that he can control everything that happens at the federation", explains Péchalat.

"He is active, he is in the countryside, he goes around France, he calls everyone," she explains.

To convince the voters, who will meet on Saturday at the headquarters of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), Péchalat defends his record, believing he has restored the image of the federation, in particular with national authorities, such as the National Sports Agency or the Ministry. , and international.

She also says she has put the federation back on track after two years of health crisis.

“We suffered a lot from the Covid, (…) (but) things have consolidated and we are really getting out of the tunnel,” she says, congratulating herself on having attracted the CIC bank as a new sponsor.

"Throwback"

But the most sensitive file that the federation had inherited on his arrival concerned sexual violence.

"We started from such a blank page that everything had to be built," she says.

"I already had ideas about what I wanted to put in place so we created an ethics committee, we reactivated the disciplinary commission. We created the disciplinary appeal commission, the report form so that witnesses, victims can speak out."

The former president of the FFSG Didier Gailhaguet before an extraordinary assembly of the intsance in Paris, February 8, 2020 Philippe LOPEZ AFP / Archives

"We tried both to sanction when necessary, and then above all to equip all the supervisors on the appropriate or inappropriate methods", she adds.

Before the election, she says she "trusts" the club presidents who will be called upon to vote at the general meeting.

"I think they are aware that it would be catastrophic for our federation to go back in time, to release with the back of the hand everything that has been done, in particular on all the relations with national and international authorities" , she says.

Since his forced departure, Gailhaguet has in any case obtained a symbolic victory by ordering the State to pay him 5,000 euros in moral damages for having lobbied for this resignation.

© 2022 AFP