The slot is no longer empty. More than a month after the dismissal of Didier Séminet, the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF) has appointed a new Secretary General. Without any real surprise, the members of the Board of Directors chose the former fencer Astrid Guyart (photo above), Olympic vice-champion in foil team competition at the Tokyo 2020 Games, who had previously held the position of deputy secretary general. She will form an all-female trio with Brigitte Henriques, the President, and Lise Cosimi, the General Manager. Astrid Guyart, 39, who will continue to pursue her career as an aerospace engineer at ArianeGroup on a part-time basis, was elected during a CNOSF board meeting which confirmed the temporary withdrawal of Brigitte Henriques to take “a rest period”. She is replaced in the operational management of the Olympic body by a quartet composed of Jean-Pierre Siutat, Michel Callot and Sébastien Poirier, the presidents of the French basketball, cycling and motorcycling federations, and Astrid Guyart. At the end of the board meeting, Brigitte Henriques explained that she was not on sick leave, but would continue to preside over the CNOSF, despite being exhausted after “fifteen months of relentlessness and unprecedented violence”. The former vice-president of the French Football Federation (FFF) admitted that she was close to giving up last February-March. “But I held on, and I will not give in,” she insisted. I will remain president until the end of my mandate. A meeting of opponents to the current governance of the body is scheduled for Thursday 13 October at the headquarters of the French Judo Federation. It should be held in the presence of Denis Masseglia, the former president of the CNOSF, who joined the opposition camp after supporting Brigitte Henriques during her campaign for the presidency.
