IOC Elects New Members, Exec Board

(ATR) The four men and four women are the result of the first targeted recruitment process for IOC membership.

The IOC Session voted at the conclusion of its three-day meeting in Rio. The members are drawn from Austria, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Colombia, Canada, India, Finland. Bobsleigh president Ivo Ferriani also joins the membership.

Sari Essayah is a female Olympian racewalker from Finland.

Ivo Ferriani is the Italian president of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, proposed as a member representing an international federation.

Luis Moreno from Colombia is president of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Auvita Rapilla is the female secretary general of the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee, a member of ANOC and of the ONOC Executive Committee.

Anant Singh is a film producer from South Africa.

Canadian Tricia Smith is an Olympian rower and president of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

Karl Stoss is president of the Austrian Olympic Committee and chairs the Managing Board of Casinos Austria AG

Nita Ambani from India is founder and chair of the Reliance Foundation.

The IOC Executive Board proposed the members at its June meeting. The additions bring the total number of members to 99.

A new set of criteria was applied by the IOC Members Election Commission, chaired by the Princess Royal, which proposed the list of candidates to the EB. The commission developed a recruitment procedure aimed at "targeting new members with skills and experience needed by the IOC".

Introducing the nominations for new members at the the IOC Session on Thursday, Princess Anne said the candidates represented a cross-section of expertise from sport, culture, medicine, sociology, business, law and management.

Elections for IOC Exec Board

Also today, the IOCelected Spain's Juan Antonio Samaranch (69 yes, 6 no) as its first vice president and Turkey's Ugur Erdener (60 yes, 18 no) as second vice president for its powerful ruling body. Switzerland's Denis Oswald withdraw his candidacy before the vote.

"This represents a lot to me," Samaranch said, adding that it wasa "lifetime dream" to join the IOC and now to continue working on the EB.

Erdener thanked members for their trust in supporting him: "I will try my best for the Olympic Movement"

Re-elected as members of the IOC Executive Board were boxing federation chief C.K. Wu, representing the summer sports, European Olympic Committees president Pat Hickey, representing the world's Olympic committees, and Ukraine's Sergey Bubka.Guatemala's Willi Kaltschmitt was also re-elected.

New athletes commission chair Angela Ruggiero and ski federation president GianFranco Kasper were newly elected to the IOC's ruling body. Singapore'sSer Miang rejoined the EB. He was a vice president from 2009-2013 and a member from 2005-2009.

"It is an honor to follow in the footsteps of Claudia Bokel. I will do my best to be the voice of athletes," Ruggiero said.

Denis Oswald of Switzerland and Habu Gamel of Nigeria missed out in their quests for EB seats.

With Morocco's Nawal El Moutawakel's EB term ending, Gamel's failure to win a seatmeans Africa no longer has a representative on the new-look executive board.

Their term of office will end at the IOC Session in 2020.

In addition, 17 IOC members were re-elected for a second term of eight years.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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