Formerly in rowing, Patrick Ranvier has been appointed National Technical Director (DTN) of the French Athletics Federation (FFA), the body which has been facing a sporting and governance crisis for several months announced Friday, December 3. In a crisis of results less than three years before the Olympic Games in Paris, the French athletics had been waiting for several months for the appointment of a DTN, a procedure transformed into a standoff between the FFA and the sports bodies who intended to regain control over an institution in limbo.