Hail to the chief! (photo credit: FIVB)
This was the big culmination of the FIVB World Congress last night — the first elected FIVB president. Seems quaint to me that a position that was previously filled by appointment was even called 'president.' This evidently was the whole reason the outgoing President Wei did so after just one term, to allow for the democratic election. He remains 'Honorary President for Life' (whatever the hell that means).
Dr. Graça, a Ph.D and a university professor from Brazil, was previously the president of CSV (the South American federation), so that opening will need to be filled as well. He received 103 of the eligible 204 votes (the 206 national federations voted by secret ballot, and two votes were disqualified). Doug Beal, the CEO of USA Volleyball, received 86 votes and Australian politician Chris Schacht got the other 15.
I don't know much of anything about Graça, and as I've said before I don't really see the immediate importance of this, but there we go. I don't suppose it can be a bad thing to have someone from arguably the most volleyball-crazed country in the world helming its world sanctioning body. Here's to four successful and prosperous years for the sport of volleyball, President Graça. And then hopefully even more where they came from.
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