The head of the French Olympic Committee has resigned just over a year out from the Games’ opening in Paris. Brigitte Henriques announced her decision at the Games’ committee’s general assembly, the result according to the French media of ‘a year-and-a-half of internal squabbling.’
There was much fanfare when Henriques was nominated to the role in June 2021, winning 58 per cent of the vote to triumph over her nearest rival, the former Judo Olympic champion Thierry Rey. The then 50-year-old Henriques was lauded as the first female president of the French Olympic committee, the culmination of a career that had included a stint as the vice-president of the French Football Federation. ‘I want to dedicate this victory to all women, particularly my daughters,’ she said.
Henriques’ resignation leaves the Olympic Committee ‘in the midst of an unprecedented crisis’
Two years later she is out, worn down, according to reports, by petty rivalries and internal disputes.
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