Who will be the new FIV president? Ettorre will win without competition

In less than ten days, on December 14, the Elective Assembly of the Italian Sailing Federation will meet to elect a new president, but we already know who it is.

Francesco Ettorre president FIV for the third time

Francesco Ettorre, 54, will take the IVF “throne” for the third consecutive time. There were no other candidates: this does not surprise us because, data in hand, never before had any FIV president, under his tenure, managed to bring home three Olympic gold medals, including two in the last edition (Paris 2024, Marta Maggetti on the iQFOiL sailing boards and Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti on the Nacra 17 flying catamarans). But who is Ettorre? Born in Giulianova in the province of Teramo in 1970, he is an accountant by profession and now a “historic” FIV president as he is now approaching his third four-year term. A sailor, with a past on dinghies (Optimist and 420, then Laser) in his career he has also been a federal instructor. He has been within the federation many years and knows its mechanisms and dynamics. We met and interviewed him on the occasion of his first term, his re-election. and, just before the 2024 Olympics, to take stock of Italian sailing.

The focus on athletes, sports excellence and the Olympics

The golds of Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, undisputed talents of Italian sailing, in the Tokyo 2021 and Paris 2024 Olympics with the Nacra 17 are an outstanding achievement, which shows how committed Ettorre has been in recent years to carrying forward a vision aimed at the protection of athletes and with a very strong sporting imprint. With Marta Maggetti’s gold, again in Marseille, in the IQFOiL category, that consecrated Italy’s golden moment in the sport: sailing was the Italian sport, along with swimming, to win the most golds during these Olympics.

The IVF of the “Ettorre tris”

In Ettorre’s management, as he himself told us in our last interview , 2023 was the year of records with 157,000 registrants, and this year, abetted by the Olympic successes and the “frenzy” of the America’s Cup, the numbers can only be “in line.”

What will be Ettorre’s future strategy for the new four-year term? Definitely that of making sailing more and more independent from public contributions , as he had already told us,“Over the past 8 years, the Federation has increased public contributions by more than 35 percent (5,655,585 euros of funds allocated by CONI’s Sport and Health, ed.), but at the same time worked to ensure that the Communication and Marketing department could generate resources. In fact, after only a few years, the Federation’s budget went from six million to the current 2024 budget, which exceeds eleven million.” .

The challenges

Let’s now come to the “catches”: it will not be easy to reconfirm the historic result of Paris (Marseille for sailing), two golds and other medals touched. Also because the future of the boy wonder Ruggero Tita (Caterina Banti, on the other hand, has announced her retirement from Olympic sailing and, we’ll tell you later, will be at the service of the FIV) is not yet crystal clear complicit with commitments in the America’s Cup with Luna Rossa, of which he has been announced helmsman. True, the Italian team is very strong and more surprises could come, not only on the Nacras and iQFOiL. There is another challenge for Ettorre in this third term: to put more and more emphasis on inclusive sailing and sailing for all. The president has never hidden his desire to push for sailing to become a Paralympic discipline again (if not in 2028, then in 2032). In this sense, we must point out the excellent efforts, carried out together with IBSA in the Para Sailing Academy. Another issue is that of the so-called “youth dispersion,” that is, of the youngsters who, having finished the cycle on youth classes (Optimist, 420, Feva…) do not continue in the career of Olympic boats. Ettorre had told us last March,“We have been building, for the past four years, a path that could help athletes who go from youth classes to Olympic classes, called Development & Under, with dedicated technicians and with specific paths, before they make the big leap into the absolute sector” Finally, we hope that the new president and his team will increasingly promote everyday sailing, that of the many enthusiasts, clubs and those who go sailing to have fun even before racing. And that makes up the vast majority of the people of Italian sailing.

All the president’s men (and women)

Who will help the president for the next term? Here is a list of those already confirmed. They will automatically be re-elected as national female advisors: Antonietta De Falco, who after her role as head of the Sailing School will be reappointed for her second term, and Nadia Alessandra Meroni, re-elected after her commitment as the new head of the National Sports Activities sector. Representing the athletes, we have a very important new election, in her first term, a famous face in sailing around the world: the aforementioned Olympic two-time champion Caterina Marianna Banti, 37 years old (here is a nice interview with her) will surely know how to engage in promoting values of equality and fairness in the sport. Ivan Branciamore, on the other hand, will continue the commitment to athletes that he had already begun in his first term in which he was in charge of E-Sailing. As national board member representing technicians, Sardinian Guido Ricetto, formerly in charge of the FIV technical instructor cadre, is reappointed. As a technical figure on the board, the auditor will again be Francesco Innamorato.

What about all the other FIV offices?

To know all those elected to the positions of male national board member and to have the complete picture of this new board, it will be necessary to wait for the counting of votes that will take place on December 14. Finally, on January 25, there will be elections for the leadership positions of the 15 Area Committees that will determine the staff that will lead the IVF in the next four years in the various areas of responsibility.