Rio, August 18, 2016 – Four new members have been elected into the board of the International Olympic Committee’s(IOC) Athletics Commission by their peers at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
They were elected for a term of eight years. The four members are Britta Heidemann from Germany (fencing), Seug-min Ryu from Korea (table tennis), Daniel Gyurta from Hungary (swimming) and Yelena Isinbayeva from the Russian Federation (athletics).
Speaking on the election, IOC President Thomas Bach said the athletes are at the heart of the Olympic Games.
“Their voice is very important in the IOC. My congratulations go to the newly elected members of the IOC Athletes’ Commission. We are looking forward to working closely with them to further advance the Olympic Movement.” The announcement was made today at the Olympic Village by IOC Member and Chair of the Election Committee Nicole Hoevertsz and incoming Chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission Angela Ruggiero. The election was held over the past 25 days in the Olympic Village located in Rio de Janeiro.
Heidemann was elected with 1,603 votes, followed by Ryu with 1,544, Gyurta with 1,469 votes and Isinbayeva with 1,365. A total of 5,185 athletes voted. The four new members will replace outgoing members Claudia Bokel, Dae Sung Moon, Alexander Popov and Yumilka Ruiz Luaces, who were elected to the Athletes’ Commission at the Beijing Games in 2008 for a term of eight years each.
Claudia Bokel, who will be handing over the title of Chair of the Commission to Angela Ruggiero at the end of the Games, said after the announcement: “Congratulations to the four newly-elected members to the IOC Athletes’ Commission, which is the voice of all the athletes within the Olympic Movement. I wish them all the best in their contribution to the Commission under the leadership of incoming Chair Angela Ruggiero.”
On 21 August, Heidemann, Ryu, Gyurta and Isinbayeva will be proposed to the IOC Session for IOC membership. Pending approval, they will then be officially introduced at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games Rio 2016 on 21 August.
Some 11,245 athletes were eligible to vote, and had 23 candidates from the same number of countries to choose from. Votes needed to be cast for four different athletes from four different sports. The candidates had to be presented by their National Olympic Committees, which were required to have their own athletes’ commission to select the candidate. In order to be eligible, the candidates had to have participated either in the Olympic Games in London in 2012 or in Rio in 2016.
