Change of leadership at World Sailing. Chaired for four years by the Dane Kim Andersen, the International Sailing Federation is moving under the Asian flag. The Chinese Quanhai Li was declared, on Sunday November 1, the winner of the presidential election, organized remotely during the general assembly of the world body. Until then vice-president of World Sailing, he was credited with 68 votes, against 60 for Kim Andersen. The vote was organized in two stages, with a first round at the end of which the two other candidates, the Spaniard Gerardo Seeliger and the Uruguayan Scott Perry, were eliminated. Kim Andersen was then in the lead, with 53 votes, against 38 for Quanhai Li. But the postponement of the votes worked in favor of the Chinese candidate. At 58, Quanhai Li becomes only the second Chinese to take over the presidency of an international federation of a summer Olympic sport, after Wei Jizhong, placed at the head of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) for a single term, between 2008 and 2012. During a campaign marked by a very deleterious climate, Kim Andersen Andersen was criticized by his opponents for his decision to move the headquarters of World Sailing from Southampton, in the south of England, to the central London, significantly more expensive. He was also criticized for the lifestyle of the international body, in particular its administrative expenses. Barely elected, Quanhai Li announced that his priority would be to restore the financial balance of World Sailing, but also to strengthen ties with the IOC and campaign for the return of sailing to the program of the Paralympic Games.
