The 62-year-old was first elected at the Congress in Lake Placid in September 2010 when he ended the 16-year reign of Canada’s Bob Storey.

Ferriani was re-elected unopposed at the 2014 Congress in Monte Carlo but was challenged four years ago by Swiss Fritz Burkard.

The Italian won comfortably, polling 38 of the 43 votes.

Ferriani represented Italy at the 1988 Olympic Games in Calgary and coached France’s Bruno Mingeon to World Championship gold in the four-man bobsleigh in 1999.

In 2006 he was the competition manager responsible for bobsleigh, skeleton and luge at the Winter Olympic Games in Turin.

Ferriani has becoming increasingly influential since being elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2016.

He joined the IOC’s ruling Executive Board in 2018 and was a member of the Coordination Commission that oversaw preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Ferriani was appointed President of the Global Association of International Sports Federations, the umbrella organisation for International Sports Federations, last November.

He is also President of the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations and head of SportAccord, the annual World Sport and Business Summit.

Three of the IBSF vice-president positions at the Congress on July 15 will also take place with no challenger to the current incumbent.

Germany’s Andreas Trautvetter is standing unopposed for the financial and corporate affairs role, Monaco’s David Tomatis will be re-elected for marketing and events and Latvia’s Martins Dambergs is the only candidate put forward for legal affairs.

Some positions are being contested, however.

Darrin Steele, who represented the United States in bobsleigh at the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympic Games, will face a challenge for vice-president of sport from Ander Mirambell.

Steele has held the position since first being elected in 2014.

Mirambell was Spain’s first skeleton athlete, competing at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Belgium’s Stefaan Freeling, a former motocross grand prix driver, who was elected as vice-president of international affairs four years ago will be challenged by Australia’s Anthony Deane, who competed against Mirambell in the skeleton at Vancouver 2010, qualifying only 18 months after taking up the sport.

The most keenly contested position will be for vice-president where three candidates are standing to replace Poland’s Przemyslaw Piesiewicz, who is not seeking re-election after serving one term.

The most eye-catching name is Nelson Chris Stokes, a member of the original Jamaican "Cool Runnings" bobsleigh team at Calgary 1988.

It was one of four appearances in the Olympics for Stokes, who subsequently also competed at Albertville 1992, Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998.

He will face rivals Bradley Chalupsky, who was born in the United States but represented Israel in the bobsleigh internationally, and Chanmin Chyun, President of the Korea Bobsleigh Skeleton Federation.