David Lappartient elected president of France's Olympic Committee
PARIS (AP) — David Lappartient was elected president of France’s Olympic Committee on Thursday, replacing Brigitte Henriques after she resigned unexpectedly last month.
Lappartient has been president of the International Cycling Union since 2017 and a member of the International Olympic Committee since last year.
The 50-year-old Frenchman secured 36 votes compared to eight for rival candidate Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj, the French Olympic Committee said in a statement.
Lappartient's election comes amid somewhat turbulent preparations for the Summer Olympics in Paris next year.
The Paris Olympic organizers' headquarters was raided by police last week as part of corruption investigations into contracts linked to the Games. In an interview with The Associated Press, Tony Estanguet, the chief organizer of the Paris Games, insisted that the two French police probes bear no comparison with corruption and ethics scandals that have dogged the Olympic movement and its flagship money-spinning event for decades.
The Paris Games run from July 26-Aug. 11, followed by the Paralympics from Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
Henriques, a former soccer player on the French national team, was the first woman to lead Olympic sports in France and had been in place since June 2021.
Her abrupt departure followed a period of intense infighting in French Olympic circles and prompted calls from Paris 2024 organizers for sports leaders to set differences aside.
French sports have been rocked over the past year.
Noël Le Graët resigned as president of France's soccer federation in February after a government audit found he no longer had the legitimacy to lead because of his behavior toward women and his management style.
Bernard Laporte resigned as president of France's rugby federation in January after he was convicted of passive corruption and handed a suspended prison sentence.
Last October, Claude Atcher was fired as chief executive of the Rugby World Cup that opens in France in September, and which also will serve as a test of France’s security preparations for the Olympics.
Atcher’s removal followed an investigation by French labor inspectors into his workplace conduct.
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