On 1 and 2 December 2017 the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG, now European Gymnastics) held its 27th Congress in Split, Croatia. For the first time all 50 member federations were represented.
The presidential vote
Farid Gayibov of Azerbaijan was elected president with 28 votes, against 20 for Edvard Kolar. Gayibov became the fifth president of the organisation, succeeding Georges Guelzec of France, who stood down after eight years. He took office on 1 January 2018 and said that attracting more people to gymnastics would be one of his main goals.
The new board
Rudolf Hediger (Switzerland), Michel Boutard (France) and Athanasios Vasileiadis joined the presidential board. The executive committee included Mircea Apolzan (Romania), Erik Juhl Mogensen (Denmark), Andrey Fedarau (Belarus), Paolo Frising (Luxembourg), Solveig Jonsdottir (Iceland), Andrey Rodionenko (Russia) and Judit Körmendy-Ekes (Hungary).
Why it mattered
The new leadership took over at the start of a busy period: the first multi-sport European Championships in Glasgow in 2018, the European Games in Minsk in 2019 and, later, the organisation’s change of name to European Gymnastics.
Related: Glasgow 2018: how the multi-sport European Championships came together.
