At the LEN Extraordinary Congress held in Frankfurt, Antonio da Silva was elected the new LEN President with a majority of 96%. For the first time, LEN will have a lady as its General Secretary, former artistic swimmer Andida Bouma, while Tomas Kucinskas is the new LEN Treasurer. At the end of the meeting, FINA President Husain al-Musallam joined from remote and welcomed the successful conclusion of the Congress and said it was time “to work together as one family.”

Antonio da Silva of Portugal is the new LEN President after receiving the vast majority of the votes at the LEN Extraordinary Congress in Frankfurt. His candidacy enjoyed 96% support among the 47 federations present and three more attending the event online. The Congress voted 92 to 8 to dismiss the previous Bureau.

The Congress then elected a new Bureau – for the first time in the history of European Aquatics, LEN has a female General Secretary, Andida Bouma of the Netherlands. Tomas Kucinskas of Lithuania is the new LEN Treasurer, while Kyriakos Giannopoulos (GRE), Christer Magnusson (SWE), Gilles Sezionale (FRA), Marco Troll (GER), and Josip Varvodic (CRO) are the new Vice-Presidents.

In his first speech as President, Mr. Da Silva said “We had the courage to stand up and fight for a better future for all federations and all the aquatic disciplines. We stood up and fought for the principles of Unity, for openness, and transparency for the sacred principles of democracy. We spoke out and demanded that LEN worked with FINA for the good of the sport worldwide. We can no longer exist in isolation, together we are stronger.”

The new LEN President underlined that the real hard work was still ahead. Among the first items on his new team’s agenda is the restructuring of the LEN Office and the Bureau and to shape and agree on a new Constitution and to review LEN’s competition structure and calendar.

“There are no fewer than 8 goals for integrity, transparency, and governance, 7 regarding inclusion and access to our sport, 6 for collaboration between aquatic disciplines and 8 for sustainability so we have a lot to do,” Mr. Da Silva said who insisted his goal was to reach out for each National Federation as he wanted to achieve real unity in Europe.

He also added, that after the new Constitution is approved – this is anticipated in May, at the next Congress –, his team plans to enlarge the LEN Bureau to include more members and there is a hope that two more European members can join the FINA Bureau in the near future.