
(ATR) The International Gymnastics Federation will have a new president for the first time in 20 years this October.
Two contenders submitted their official candidature files to the FIG on May 17 in a bid to replace outgoing president Bruno Grandi. Grandi took over as president in 1996 and became an IOC member in 2000.
European Gymnastics Union president Georges Guelzec of France and Japan Gymnastics Association secretary general Morinari Watanabe will now begin a five month campaign to become the federation’s ninth president since it was established in 1881.
Guelzec, 68, announced his intention to run for the position in January. Guelzec is also the vice president of the French Gymnastics Federation and competed on the French Olympic team at Munich in 1972.
"I am sure that our candidate Georges Guelzec will be an excellent President of the International Federation," said FGF president James Blateau. "He has been involved in gymnastics for 35 years at the national and international level, and has shown himself as an excellent manager in the service of the sport. He also possesses plenty of new ideas, which gymnastics needs right now."
Watanabe, 57, is a member of the FIG executive committee and also a former gymnast. Watanabe decided to join the race in April.
"Mr. Watanabe is both a leader with gymnastics experience and a brilliant businessman. His leadership has revived Japanese gymnastics," said JGA president Hidenori Futagi. "I am confident that he would be able to form a new FIG by fully respecting President Grandi’s achievements as well as the FIG’s history."
The next president will be chosen at the FIG Congress being held in Tokyo from Oct. 18-20. Grandi will relinquish his presidential mandate in December.
Written by Kevin Nutley
Homepage photo: Getty Images
Forgeneral comments or questions, click here.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about theOlympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.
Últimas Noticias
Brigitte Henriques: “The important thing is that the women who are elected should be chosen for their ability, not because we are looking for modernization in terms of gender”
“When I was a girl I couldn’t find a club to play soccer in because most of them didn’t work with women,” Henriques tells Around the Rings during an in-depth interview in Crete, Greece.

The Hula Report: Winds of Change for ANOC in Crete
New leaders coming for peak Olympic group. Whether other candidates emerge in the months ahead, a contested election for the ANOC presidency will be a first for the organization.

Gilles Gilbert Gresenguet, presidential candidate for AFCNO: “We must take advantage of Paris 2024 to bring the Olympic Games back to French”
The elections take place November 18, and Abakar Djermah Aumi, president of the Chad Olympic Committee, is also aiming to win them.

USOPC announces 613-member 2020 U.S. Olympic Team

Roger Federer pulls out of Tokyo Olympics: "I am greatly disappointed"
(ATR) Federer cites "a setback with my knee" for the decision.
