France Olympic Committee president resigns suddenly amid intense infighting

The president of France's Olympic Committee resigned unexpectedly on Thursday, the latest leadership shake up of French sports amid preparations for the Summer Olympics in Paris next year.

Brigitte Henriques, a former soccer player on the French national team, was the first woman to lead Olympic sports in France. Her abrupt departure follows a period of intense infighting in French Olympic circles and prompted calls from Paris 2024 organizers for sports leaders to set differences aside and focus on delivering the Games.

"The Games come around once every hundred years in our country: The sports movement must show up," organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said in a statement.

France's sports minister, Amelie Oudea-Castera, said: "There is no winner today."

The French Olympic Committee said Henriques announced at the start of a general assembly meeting on Thursday that she was stepping down. The committee statement did not give her reasons but said she explained them to the meeting's attendees. She'd occupied the role since June 2021.

With the Paris Games less than 430 days away, the sudden void at the top of French Olympic sports will be temporarily filled by the Olympic committee secretary general Astrid Guyart. She will oversee the election process for a new president within three months, the committee said.

As head of France's Olympic Committee, Henriques was directly involved in the massive, complex and costly preparations for the 2024 Games, sitting as a member of the board of directors of the Paris organizing committee led by its president, Estanguet. As French Olympic Committee secretary, the new interim president, Guyart, was already a member of the Paris 2024 board, too.

Noel Le Graet resigned as