(ATR) It's been more than two decades since an international sports federation has been led by a Japanese.
Morinari Watanabe was the winner at the the International Gymnastics Federation congress in Tokyo. Watanabe received 100 votes, while Georges Guelzec garnered 19. He will assume the presidency on Jan. 1, 2017.
The last Japanese president of an international federation was Ichiro Ogimura, who led the International Table Tennis Federation from 1987 to 1994.
Watanabe said he hopes to promote "innovation in gymnastics," during his tenure. He is the first new president of the FIG in 20 years, taking over from Bruno Grandi of Italy who is retiring.
"Thank you very much for trusting me and believing in me," Watanabe said following his election victory. "Today we sent a strong message to the world. Our gymnastics is not a sport that is popular only at the Olympic Games. Gymnastics is now and will be the king of sports."
Watanabe comes to the FIG presidency from the Japanese Gymnastics Association. Watanabe joined the national federation in 2001, contributing to a revival of Japanese gymnastics. After going medal-less in 2000, Japan has won a gymnastics medal in every Olympics since 2004.
Vasily Titov from Russia, Nellie Kim from Belarus, and Luo Chaoyi from China were elected as the three FIG vice-presidents.
Written by Aaron Bauer
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