The president of the UCI was elected at the head of the CNOSF until 2025, while he already occupies many functions in sport, but not only.
At 50, David Lappartient is a very busy man. One year from the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Frenchman has just been elected, Thursday, June 29, president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). A responsibility that adds to a long list of sporting and political mandates, for the man who has established himself as one of the most influential personalities in French sport in recent years.
Originally from Pontivy, David Lappartient first dreams of being a cyclist, following in the footsteps of his father Joseph. But his sports career did not take off. So, after studying to become a surveying engineer, he set out to conquer the authorities of the little Queen, failing to be able to raise his arms on the Tour de France. Thus in 1997, at barely 24 years old, he became president of his club Vélo Sport de Rhuys (until 2007) and organizer of the GP de Plumelec, the start of a long career.
The world of sport belongs to him
In the years that followed, after having climbed the local ladder, the Breton became general treasurer then vice-president of the French Cycling Federation (FFC), integrating by extension the steering committee of the International Cycling Union (UCI) from 2005. A little as if the president of an amateur football club joined Fifa after eight years of presidency. This lightning trajectory only accelerated afterwards. In 2009, David Lappartient took over the presidency of the FFC, which he did not let go until 2017 to take that of the UCI. All after a political coup.
At the time, it was the Briton Brian Cookson who occupied this seat. After a successful campaign, the Breton inflicted a historic rout on him by winning 37 votes to 8, and became the first Frenchman to hold this position for sixty years. In its program: the fight against mechanical doping, restoring importance to national federations, an overhaul of the World Tour (succeeded since), and promises such as that of offering Africa its first world championships. Rwanda will also host the 2025 edition.
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In an article published last May, the newspaper Le Monde points to “dirty links” with the Russian-Turkmen oligarch Igor Makarov, very influential in the world of cycling and in particular at the origin of the creation of the Katusha team in 2008. Referring to the appointment of Lappartient to the UCI, the Russian billionaire had indicated: “It’s kind of my victory”according to comments reported by The Team [article payant].
Since this election, the man who also relaunched the European Cycling Union (UEC) (2013-2017) has worked hard for the express development of women’s cycling, in particular by pushing for the creation of the Tour de France Women in 2022. also saw him become the fourth Frenchman to sit on the IOC.
10 current mandates
So many functions that give David Lappartient a ministerial agenda, even if the Breton understood that there was no need to be in government to influence the life of French sport. But the new president of the CNOSF is also a politician, since it is not only in sports bodies that he combines mandates. “I have always given up on choosing between sport and politics, one feeds on the other“, he also admitted to Actu.fr.
Becoming the youngest mayor in Brittany in 2008 in his town of Sarzeau, David Lappartient is also president of the county council, president of the regional natural park of the Gulf of Morbihan and community councilor of Vannes agglomeration, without forgetting his title of president of the company of the ports of Morbihan. Member of the Les Républicains party, the Breton is a convinced Sarkozyst. He had even offered the former president a license in his club and a brand new bike. What make David Lappartient say that he works 85 hours a week and arouse criticism from the opposition. “I will be a full-time president”had insisted her competitor Emmanuelle Bonnet-Oulaldj during her big oral in front of the members of the CNOSF.
In the columns of The Teamthe Breton had promised that he planned to “to reflect on” to his organization once elected: “I have planned either to resign from certain mandates, or to change my mode of operation a little because there are things that run completely normally”. David Lappartient, however, clarified that he would not leave the UCI or the departmental council:“MBut I will probably resign from the presidency of the Natural Park of the Gulf of Morbihan, from my post as community advisor. I could cut back on other commitments. One thing is certain, I will not combine these mandates beyond 2025″.
About this accumulation of mandates, the daily the world evoked “a report from the Anticor association for complicity in the illegal taking of interest” in one of its functions. “I have always worked in strict compliance with the rules and I think I am recognized for my uprightness and scrupulous respect for the rules of ethics (…)”retorted the person concerned in a letter addressed to his peers and voters, and relayed by The Team. And to add: “It will not deviate from my wish to serve the French Olympic movement.”