Since the resignation of Brigitte Henriques, the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF) has been agitating behind the scenes to try to bring out a personality to replace her in nearly three weeks. The name of UCI President David Lappartient comes up often, but other names also circulate.
The new president of the CNOSF will be known on June 29 at the end of the board of directors, the date of the effective resignation of the former vice-president of the FFF, who announced her departure two weeks ago. Until then, “the phone calls will rain, and the game of strategy will not stop”, confides to AFP a member of the committee. The 48 members of the board of directors, split in two for almost a year and a half due to the conflict between Brigitte Henriques and her predecessor Denis Masseglia, who had agglomerated around him a whole opposition, will have to agree. The new president of an institution still groggy by a crisis worthy of a bad soap opera of more than a year and a half will come from this conclave.
“You’re going to see that they’re going to be able to disagree. It’s a house that is sometimes complicated to understand, ”said a source close to circles of power on the day of the resignation of its ex-president. The president of the UCI, French member of the IOC and ex officio member of the CA of the CNOSF David Lappartient, had also reported that day. Hardly had the resignation of the president been announced than he had assured the media in the corridors of the house of sport to “be ready” to stand as a candidate if “a consensus” emerged around his name. “Honestly that would be nice. He is solid, if he goes there it is because he has the approval of the IOC, that will reassure everyone, ”analyzes a sports movement executive.
Almost a year before the Olympic Games (July 26 – August 11, 2024), and after 18 months of an interminable crisis, the stature of the providential man from the seraglio won over some of the members of the CNOSF. But only a part. “Except that David is not unanimous,” summarizes one of its members. The leader from cycling knows it, his ambition, his progress, do not necessarily please everyone. “He has already said that he would not let go of his mandate on the departmental council (of Morbihan, of which he is president, editor’s note). But how is he going to find the time, between his political obligations, the IOC, to take care of a house that is still traumatized, with the deadline for the Olympic Games approaching at breakneck speed? member.
The CNOSF ethics commission was seized by the general secretary Astrid Guyart to try to see clearly in this period and to set a precise framework for the next election. The executive office scheduled for June 13 should therefore set the deadline for applications and certainly decide on the legal possibility of David Lappartient to stand as a candidate since he was not elected by the General Assembly of the CNOSF, but sits on the Board as a member of the IOC. “It is above all that not much in the statutes exists and that the commission must clarify the process”, specifies a source close to the management.
So far, no candidate is officially in the running. The name of Cédric Gosse, the president of the triathlon federation newly elected to the CA, 53, however, recently appeared. “He is young, ambitious, and his fairly smooth profile would be ideal for the Ministry of Sports”, whispers a source close to the CNOSF. He has so far remained silent about his intentions. Another name also emerges, that of the former presidential candidate, Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj. Co-president of the sports and gymnastics federation of work (FSGT), a non-Olympic federation, she had surprised by achieving a very good score, 3rd with more than 16% of the votes. “Frankly she also has a card to play. It is not marked in any camp, it is serious, and it marked the spirits during the last campaign”, analyzes a president of federation. We will have to wait a little longer to know the contenders for a coveted chair.
