The embattled president of the Federazione Italiana Nuoto (FIN), or the Italian Swimming Federation, Paolo Barelli has been re-elected in a landslide vote.
Barellis received 13,811 votes at the federation’s 41st elective assembly two weeks ago, which is 83.4% of the votes.
This means his term will be extended until at least 2020, which would put him in the office for 20 years.
He was the first swimmer of his caliber to hold the position of president of the federation; Barelli was a 1975 Mediterranean Games champion in the 100 fly and swam on Italy’s 400 free relay that won bronze at the 1975 World Championships.
Barelli ran against Alessandro Valentini, the vice-president of Finplus.
Earlier this year, Barelli was re-elected as the president of the LEN (the European Swimming League) ahead of his Dutch counterpart Erik van Heijningen.
In 2014, Barelli was accused of fraud after the 2009 World Championships where $1 million in allocated money was unaccounted for, and the swimming federation was sued by CONI (the Italian Olympic Committee). Barelli has adamantly denied the accusations.