Bruno Grandi, who will step down at the end of 2016 after 20 years at the helm of the FIG, was named Honorary President at the conclusion of the 81st Congress on Thursday.
The entire room stood up and warmly applauded when the time came to say farewell to the eighth President in the FIG's history, at the end of a long day of debates in Tokyo. With his successor Morinari Watanabe (JPN) sitting next to him, the Italian formulated his own wish for the future of the sport.
"Your long Gymnastics career has been multi-faceted. You were a gymnast, a coach, a judge, a very competent technician, a professor, an administrative leader both in Italy and internationally," said first Vice President Slava Corn (CAN) in her tribute speech.
"Above all, Bruno, you have been our political statesman and worldwide ambassador. I believe your greatest contribution has been your fight for 'sporting justice', for good ethics, honesty, and always putting the athletes first", she added.
Slava Corn was also honoured by being named Honorary Vice President - an award also bestowed upon Michel Leglise (FRA), who was unable to attend the Tokyo Congress, and Mireille Ganzin (FRA), outgoing Aerobic Gymnastics technical committee president.
This third and last day was mainly dedicated to the review of the FIG statutes, 24 hours after IOC President Thomas Bach had encouraged the member federations "to be courageous and to make the changes and in such a way to ensure a bright future" for Gymnastics.
First, the Congress accepted the principles whereby the FIG will adapt its statutes to respect good governance and avoid conflict of interests and create a more effective structure for the sport's governing body.
To this end, an amendment to Art.2.1 of the statutes was approved, stating: "All IOC Codes and Regulations, e.g. the IOC Code of Ethics, in particular The Rules concerning conflicts of interest affecting the behaviour of Olympic parties as well as The basic universal principles of good governance of the Olympic and sports movement (implementing provisions of the IOC Code of Ethics 2016), and the protection of clean athletes have to be applied."
The delegates approved also changes to the Code of Ethics by the 2/3 majority required, which will serve to prevent any close family relative of a competitive gymnast from judging that gymnast in an FIG event.
Regarding the structure of the FIG, the assembly accepted the insertion into the statutes of the new position of "technical coordinator", whose mission will be to overview all the Gymnastics disciplines with the aim of achieving greater uniformity with the rules.
These changes come into force on January 1, 2017.
For more information, please contact:
FIG Media & Communications Department
Email: mediafig@fig-gymnastics.org
Tel: +41 21 321 55 10
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