David Lappartient elected president to appease French sport one year from the Olympics

393 days from the 2024 Olympic Games and after having weathered a storm that lasted nine months, brought to light the deep dissensions that led to the end of Maythe resignation of Brigitte Henriquesthe first woman elected to the presidency of the body, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) this Thursday, during a General embly, proceeded to the election of David Lappartient (president of the International Cycling Union ), the favorite, who was well ahead (80% of the vote) Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj, co-president of the Sports and Gymnastics Federation of Labor.

The French sports movement hopes to be able to benefit from an essential return to calm. “It is time to find a little serenity, mutual aid and that the CNOSF can equip itself with the weapons to do the work for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and to display a more responsible image of the French sports movement after having presented a serious image tarnished both nationally and internationally. There was above all incomprehension in relation to what happened, with a succession of events which only poisoned the debate in an atmosphere which was not terrible. We had gone all the way…“, observes Guy Drut, member of the IOC.

Call to order from the IOC

In the straight line leading to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, French sport has, in recent months, presented a lackluster showcase by compiling cases, scandals and settling of accounts, with in particular the hasty departure of Noël Le Graët (president of the Football Federation) And the resounding resignation of Bernard Laporte (president of the rugby federation) in a smell of sulfur a few months before the Rugby World Cup.

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Traditionally spared, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee was also hit hard. The CNOSF, the hexagonal representation of what the IOC is internationally, the sports movement as a whole, with the sports federations, the affinity and Olympic federations has been deeply shaken by tensions, attacks, procrastination which worried until at the IOC in Lausanne. At the height of tensions, the cenacle of sports cardinals briefly but firmly recalled at the end of May to “the entire French Olympic and sports movement», the urgent need to focus « fully on the success of the Paris Games.

“David Lappartient knows his files inside out and is, at the same time, friendly and close to people. »

Christian Prudhomme, director of the Tour de France

David Lappartient (50) arrives in this context. His always-outgoing smile twitched when he had to explain himself before the election after the revelations of Le Monde on his relations with the oligarch Igor Makarov and the former president of Turkmenistan Gurbangouli Berdimoukhamedov. But nothing has thwarted his ascent. That of a man in a hurry, with an always docile lock, with a fitted tie who flies from meeting to meeting.

Last week, the one who walks false airs of actor Guillaume de Tonquédec, was in Singapore as part of the first Olympic week of Esport. Present in Paris for the general embly of the CNSOF, he quickly took the direction of Bilbao to attend the start of the Tour de France, this Saturday. His life is organized between Sarzeau, the family stronghold in Morbihan, and Aigle, in Switzerland, headquarters of the International Cycling Union. His schedule is that of a minister into which the slightest grain of sand cannot enter, under penalty of prejudicial delay.

After having been President of the French Cycling Federation (from 2009 to 2017), of the European Cycling Union (from 2013 to 2017), he chairs the International Cycling Union (elected in 2017, he was re-elected in 2020 until in 2025). And juggles with sporting mandates (member of the IOC, of ​​the board of directors of the Paris 2024 Games and of the foundation board of the World Anti-Doping Agency) and politics in Morbihan (president of the Departmental Council, president of the port company , of the regional natural park, community advisor of agglomeration valves, etc.).

“Gathering and Unity”

Having become one of the French members of the IOC (with Guy Drut, Jean-François Rolland and Martin Fourcade), since 2018 he has chaired the liaison group on e-sport and video games for the body. His credo for the CNOSF: “gathering and unity“. His project revolved around four points: pacify and unite, make the Olympic Games a success, affirm the autonomy of the French sports movement, continue the implementation of the CNOSF’s political project.

“He is a remarkable president of the International Cycling Union. He knows his files inside out and is, at the same time, friendly and close to people. He has facilities to discuss with people, whoever they are. When he was mayor of Sarzeau and we took part in the Tour there (in 2018), I had been there once before and we had met a collective of peasants. He had wanted this. He’s a real big name in the sports world. », Appreciates Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France.

Guy Drut adds: “ He proved his efficiency each time in all the positions he occupied, whether on a political level, at the local level, which led him to refuse to be a senatorial candidate (he was invested by Les Republicans) to devote himself to his election to the UCI. He was effective in his role as President of the French Cycling Federation, as he is today at the head of the Morbihan department. The CNOSF gives him an extra cap but I know his organizational skills. He has two years to devote himself to the task of renovating the French Olympic and sports movement. And everyone will have a voice, like Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj who will have a role to play as a representative of sports and affinity federations. David Lappartient is the ideal man for the situation in which we have arrived. The first objective is the success of the Olympics. He has real consideration with the IOC, has international relations, that will count. He is there until 2025 to ensure the period of the Olympics and that which will follow when the organizing committee of the Games will have disappeared. He will have to ume all or part of the inheritance… »