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GENEVA (AP) — Sarah Lewis is out to make a stunning comeback in sports activities politics, declaring herself a candidate to turn out to be the primary feminine president of the Worldwide Ski Federation solely six months after being fired from her function as secretary normal.
Lewis, who introduced her candidacy on Tuesday, spent 20 years as the highest administrator at FIS earlier than being ousted a number of months into the coronavirus pandemic.
It was an abrupt exit even within the typically ruthless world of operating Olympic sports activities our bodies, and for certainly one of its most distinguished feminine officers who was untouched by scandal.
The FIS assertion of just one sentence final October defined the choice was “primarily based on a whole lack of confidence” in Lewis — although that phrase was quickly deleted from its web site.
Among the many first messages despatched to Lewis after her firing requested merely: “Who did you kill? Did you rob a financial institution?” she advised The Related Press forward of launching her election marketing campaign.
For added intrigue, one election opponent within the on-line vote set for June 4, Mats Arjes of Sweden, was a member of the FIS Council that eliminated her.
Arjes is a FIS vp and is seen as the popular selection of president Gian Franco Kasper, who’s leaving one 12 months early after 23 years in workplace. Swiss ski federation president Urs Lehmann, a former downhill world champion, can be a candidate.
Lewis’ ambition to succeed her long-time boss was recognized in recent times to FIS observers. However Kasper was thought unlikely to endorse the previous skier who competed on the 1988 Calgary Olympics.
Nonetheless, her ousting as secretary normal was a shock. It got here amid the pandemic, which twice delayed FIS elections, heaped work on employees in Switzerland, and threatened the winter sports activities season.
“I can’t clarify it in any respect. I used to be so targeted on the COVID season,” Lewis advised the AP in a phone interview. “I used to be most likely blind-sided that there have been politics occurring behind the scenes.”
So why run for president of a corporation whose high committee rejected her?
“I had so many individuals contact me and so many messages of help,” Lewis stated, “all this religion and perception that I’m the fitting individual for it.”
Her work ethic and a spotlight to element is proven by writing letters previously week in 25 totally different languages to focus on voters.
The previous six months additionally gave her time for soul-searching and to replicate on her working fashion, which she acknowledges was intense and might be “overpowering.”
“I’m not with out fault. You understand that isn’t one of the best ways,” stated Lewis, who has since paid her approach via a enterprise management course. “It was vital to find out about myself and my weaknesses so that folks really feel I’ve made this transition.”
The British ski federation opted to not help Lewis as candidate and earlier than the pandemic nominated the billionaire chief of ski model Head, Johan Eliasch. Although Eliasch is Swedish, he’s primarily based in London and has been a enterprise affiliate of Prince Andrew.
Lewis is positioning as a world candidate, relying on sturdy relationships with previous and future Winter Olympic host nations Russia, South Korea and China.
She turned to a smaller ski nation, Belgium, for a proper election nomination. The transfer was supported by the nation’s Olympic chief, IOC member Pierre-Olivier Beckers-Vieujant.
Striving for gender fairness is a contemporary mantra for the Worldwide Olympic Committee, and Lewis names Mikaela Shiffrin, Eileen Gu and Therese Johaug amongst snowboarding’s greatest current stars.
Nevertheless, FIS has had solely male presidents in its 97-year historical past, and Kasper is simply the fourth. The council which fired Lewis presently includes 18 males and one girl.
“It’s very straightforward to repair,” stated Lewis, including many succesful girls can’t rise inside FIS as a result of their nation already has a person in a senior place.
This doesn’t imply a Lewis presidency would act in opposition to people who eliminated her.
“I don’t have any situation in any respect with anybody who was concerned in that call,” she insisted. “There are not any grudges.”
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Extra AP snowboarding: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports activities
Copyright 2021 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
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