The year 2025 was marked by numerous elections within the Olympic Movement. The IOC election, of course, but also those of the National Olympic Committees. More than 70 of them voted this year to elect their leaders for the next Olympic cycle. Before setting their sights on 2026, Francs Jeux returns to the evolution of this landscape.
The new faces
In France, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra succeeded David Lappartient, who did not seek re-election. The former Minister of Sports ran unopposed following Didier Séminet's withdrawal. Across the Alps, the competition was tougher, and Luciano Buonfiglio (75 years old) was elected over Luca Pancalli, the president of the Italian Paralympic Committee, with 47 votes (to 34). A competitor in canoe-kayak at the 1976 Montreal Games, he is the first Olympian to head the CONI. He took over from Giovanni Malagò, who had held the position for 12 years.
Austria also chose an Olympian, something that hadn't happened for over a century, in the person of Horst Nussbaumer. In Greece, Isidoros Kouvelos ended Spyros Capralos's 16-year presidency, securing 21 votes against 13 for the president of the European Olympic Committees. Another prominent figure to suffer defeat, this time in Turkey, was the president of SportAccord. Uğur Erdener, had to bow to Ahmet Gülüm while he had been at the head of TMOK since 2011.
Isidoros Kouvelos, new president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee (COH).
In Asia, the Japanese Olympic Committee achieved a major first with the election of Seiko Hashimoto, the first woman to preside over the JOC, in June. In South Korea, legendary table tennis player Ryu Seung-min took the helm of the NOC after a turbulent electoral processChaos also reigned in Thailand during the election of Pimol Srivikorn, as well as in Kenya, where the vote was postponed before Shadrack Maluki was elected over NOCK Secretary General Francis Mutuku. In far more tragic circumstances following the death of Jiménez Cáceres, Honduras elected José Ubaldo Zavala Valladares as head of its NOC in January.
In Egypt, Yasser Mohamed Ibrahim Idris went from interim president to president outright by winning the election held in the spring. A similar situation occurred in Rwanda, where Alice Umulinga was officially elected after a long interim period. She ran unopposed in the election.
Other new additions include Allan Sharp (Belize), Tshepo Sitale (Botswana), Bernie Bush (Cayman Islands), Christian Forcellini (San Marino), Vesela Lecheva (Bulgaria), Richard Akpokavie (Ghana), Fernando Gomes (Portugal), Pedro Celestino de Sousa (Angola), Fernando Arlete (Guinea Bissau), Letsatsi Ntsibolane (Lesotho), Michel Knepper (Luxembourg), Luisa Peters (Cook Islands), Cathy Wong (Fiji), Kautu Temakei (Kiribati), Sylvester Rennie (Liberia), Richard Papie (Mauritius), Jeng Phang Naw Taung (Myanmar), Milica Djuricic (Serbia), Sayyid Azan bin Qais Al Said (Oman), Alaine Alcindor (Seychelles), Chol Pal Gai Laam (Sudan South), Chia-Fu Tsai (Taipei) or Willum Thor Thorsson (Iceland).
They set off again for another round
The list of re-elected presidents is a little longer to compile. In Europe, Jean-Michel Saive was re-elected for a second term as head of the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (BOIC), whileAlejandro Blanco extended his reign in Spain He has chaired the COE since 2005 and will remain in charge until 2029. Australia, which is gradually ramping up its preparations for Brisbane 2032, has, for its part renewed his confidence in Ian Chesterman, the sole candidate for his own succession.
Stability also reigned in Argentina, Uganda, Peru, Colombia, and Trinidad and Tobago, where Mario Moccia, Donald Rukare, Renzo Manyari, Ciro Solano, and Diane Henderson all secured second terms. Christopher Samuda began his third term as president of the Jamaican Olympic Association, and Tricia Smith her fourth as head of the Canadian Olympic Committee. She was also re-elected as an IOC member in October 2024.
Tricia Smith has competed in four Olympic Games in rowing and has been running the COC for ten years.
Among the other outgoing presidents who retained their positions, we can mention Prince Feisal (Jordan), who was also a candidate for the IOC presidency earlier this year, as well as Fidel Ylli (Albania), Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal (Saudi Arabia), Julien Minavoa (Benin), Gilles Gresenguet (Central African Republic), Wanda Broeksema (Aruba), José Armando Bruni Ochoa (El Salvador), Alejandro Martin Evuna Andeme (Equatorial Guinea), João Manuel Da Costa Alegre (São Tomé and Príncipe), Gerardo Aguirre (Guatemala), Amos Mbayo Kitenge (DR Congo), Abderrahmane Hammad (Algeria), Jiri Kejval (Czech Republic), Billy Doctrove (Dominica), Ismet Krasniqi (Kosovo), Boutros Jalkh (Lebanon), Mohamed Abdul Sattar (Maldives), Julian Pace Bonello (Malta), Anthony Muller (Marshall Islands), Aqeel Meten Khafeef Al-Baidhani (Iraq), Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan), Alfred Foloko (Zambia), Marcus Stephen (Nauru), Mohamad Norza Zakaria (Malaysia), Hans von Uthmann (Sweden), Michael Bloomfield (Tonga), Antoine Boudier (Vanuatu) or Thabani Gonye (Zimbabwe).
