Paulo Wanderley wins the most democratic election in history and will be president of the COB until the end of 2024

Paulo Wanderley wins the most democratic election in history and will be president of the COB until the end of 2024

Paulo Wanderley will be the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) in the next quadrennium (2021-2024). In the most democratic election in the entity's history, the Force is Union slate, also composed of vice president Marco La Porta, obtained 26 of the 48 possible votes and won the election held this Wednesday morning, the 7th, in Rio de Janeiro. The COB+Forte (Rafael Westrupp/Emanuel Rego) and Vem Ser (Helio Meirelles Cardoso/Robson Caetano) slates ended with 20 and 2 votes, respectively.

"Experiencing a moment like the one today truly moves me and reminds me of the whole trajectory of 2017 until now, how much we have built together. That is a victory by itself. We currently live in democracy at the COB; we have, for the first time in decades, three slates running for president; we have the massive and fundamental participation of athletes in making the decision. All of those facts are the result of the statutory reform that I conducted as president of this entity", said COB President Paulo Wanderley, speaking shortly after the victory.

This Wednesday's election was marked by the expressive participation of the Athletes Commission, which for the first time was entitled to 12 votes in the Assembly. The voting also included 34 representatives of the Brazilian Olympic Confederations and two members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), totaling 48 voters. The Brazilian Handball Confederation (CBHb) did not send a representative.

"When I applied with Marco La Porta, we were looking for the possibility of an even greater evolution of the COB and Brazilian sports. This is the commitment that we signed after the result of the ballot box. We will always talk about transparency, austerity and meritocracy, as well as competence and excellence. The objective is to expand governance, transparency and compliance mechanisms, improving the highly successful Management, Ethics and Transparency (GET) program, so that we can have a genuinely sports management. The confederations, which are already part of the COB's routine, will be increasingly involved with processes that concern them", explains Paulo Wanderley.

Since assuming the presidency of the COB, on October 11, 2017, Paulo Wanderley has promoted a series of changes in the entity, such as: review of contracts, cutting expenses and adapting the budget to the new reality of Brazilian Olympic sports after Rio 2016; presentation of a new statute, which started to be updated every two years; expansion of the Athletes' Commission to 25 members, with 19 of them voting in the General Assembly from the next cycle (until 2017, only one of them had the right to vote); creation of the Board of Directors and the Ethics Council, in addition to the hiring of a Compliance Leader, who started to manage the Ombudsman Channel, another unprecedented initiative.

Other important actions were: the partnership signed with UN Women for the elaboration of the Policy for the Prevention and Fight against Harassment and Sexual Abuse; the creation of the Hall of Fame; and the allocation of 84% of the amount collected under the Lottery Law to the end activity (sports).

Finally, in the sports field, Team Brasil returned from Lima 2019 with the best campaign in history in the Pan American Games, finishing in 2nd place in the overall medals table (54 golds, 46 silvers and 69 bronzes), participated in the South American Games from Praia Rosário 2019 with a Mission led 100% by women and signed an agreement with nine bases in Japan for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Before the COB

Potiguar from Caicó (RN), but raised in Espírito Santo, Paulo Wanderley Teixeira, 70 years old, has a degree in Physical Education and started his relationship with Olympic sports at the age of five, when he moved to Vitória (ES) and had contact for the first time time with judo. He coached the Brazilian national team from 1979 to 1993. During that period he worked as a coach at the Havana 1991 Pan American Games and the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. In 2001, he was elected president of the Brazilian Judo Confederation (CBJ), a position he held until 2016, when he assumed the vice presidency of the Brazilian Olympic Committee.

His management at the head of CBJ brought the entity closer with athletes and coaches, developed the sport's structure in the country, organized major international events in the country - such as the 2007 and 2013 World Cups in Rio de Janeiro, and the 2012 Team World Cup, in Salvador - and brought 12 Olympic medals for the sport, including the first women's judo, with the bronze of Ketleyn Quadros in Beijing 2008, the unprecedented gold of Sarah Menezes in London 2012 and the historic gold of Rafaela Silva in Rio 2016.

Paulo Wanderley was also president of the Espirito Santo Judo Federation, the South American Judo Confederation, the Pan American Judo Confederation and vice president of the International Judo Federation. He also holds the position of Honor Consultant at the Brazilian Academy of Trainers (ABT).

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