The series continues. It could be boring, but it turns out to be rather entertaining. After canoeing, field hockey and rugby, to name only the most recent cases, three new Olympic sports or those about to become Olympics proceeded over the last weekend to the election of a new president. A habit at the very beginning of an Olympics.
In all three cases, the same starting scenario: the outgoing president did not seek a new mandate. Not so common in the Olympic movement.
Let's quickly move on to the first election. It held no surprises and not an ounce of suspense. In Porto, Portugal, the 39th Congress of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) said goodbye to its president of twelve years, Ary S. Graça, and hello to his successor, Fabio Azevedo. The two men have one thing in common: their passports. They are both Brazilian.
Fabio Azevedo, who until the eve of the congress was still the general director of the body, was the only one in the running. A foregone conclusion, then. But the new strongman of world volleyball, elected for an eight-year term, achieved the rather unexpected feat of being elected by acclamation. Yes, the old-fashioned way. Even before he takes office, that's for sure something.
As soon as he was elected, Fabio Azevedo quickly chose a secretary general. His name: Hugh McCutcheon. The New Zealander, a senior advisor to the FIVB for several years, has a solid track record on the volleyball court. He led the American men's team to the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, then its women's counterpart to the silver medal at the 2012 London Games.
Another, much more uncertain election: the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM). The Monaco-based body traveled to Saudi Arabia to hold its elective congress. The German Klaus Schormann, in office for over thirty years, was not in the race. In his place, three candidates, all Olympians but from three different continents: the Frenchman Joël Bouzou, the Egyptian Sharif El Erian and the American Robert Stull.
Vice-president of the body, Joël Bouzou seemed in a good position to climb a new step. However, he was pushed aside in the first round. With only 22 votes, he left the battle for the presidency to be played out between Sharif El Erian (42 votes) and Robert Stull (38).
In the second round, the Egyptian confirmed his position by obtaining 51 votes, against 50 for his American rival, plus one abstention. A victory for Africa? Not so fast. After a study of the UIPM statutes, it was declared that "an absolute majority" was required to win the prize, in other words at least one vote more than half of the total number of votes cast.
A third round of voting was therefore organized. And there, surprise, Robert Stull (photo above, right, with Klaus Schormann) reversed the trend by rallying 53 voters, against 48 for Sharif El Erian. At 62, the American becomes the sixth president of the UIPM, the first non-European. President of the NORCECA Confederation (North, Central America and the Caribbean) since 2016, he was an Olympian in two sports, fencing and modern pentathlon.
For Joël Bouzou, the blow is harsh, since he also loses his mandate as vice-president and his seat on the executive committee. Bad streak: his defeat is the third in less than ten days for the French sports movement, after that of Christian Dullin for the presidency of Rugby Europe, then that of Abdelatif Benazzi for World Rugby's presidency.
For the United States, on the other hand, the new Olympiad is off to a flying start. As evidenced by the victory of another American candidate, Bob DeMarco, for the presidency of the International Lacrosse Federation (World Lacrosse). Elected for a first four-year term, he succeeds the Englishwoman Sue Redfern to become the fourth president of World Lacrosse since its creation in 2008.
An American at the head of World Lacrosse, not really a big surprise, especially in view of the Los Angeles 2028 Games, where the discipline will make its Olympic debut as an additional sport. But Bob DeMarco did not have a foregone conclusion. He had to rule out two other candidates, the German Jakob Grossehagenbrock and the New Zealander Ronald Jones.
Bob DeMarco has been a member of the World Lacrosse Board of Directors since 2017, after serving seven years on the Development Commission. When he joined, the body had 35 national member federations. Today, there are 92.
