(ATR) IOC Athletes’ Commission chair Claudia Bokel has been appointed head of the board of trustees for the Hamburg Olympic bid.
The Olympic fencing silver medalist, who is also a member of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) board, was named to the post of the newly-established body on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old will be used by the bid to deepen international contacts. She also supported the failed Munich 2018 Winter Olympic bid, which also included Hamburg 2024 director of sport and international Bernard Schwank in its leadership team.
"As the world's highest-ranked athletes’ spokeswoman she knows how you have to appeal to the international sports family," DOSB president Alfons Hörmann said in an interview with SID.
In late July, Bokel resigned from the IOC Ethics Commission to avoid any possible conflicts of interest with Hamburg’s 2024 Olympic campaign.
Hamburg 2024 and the German NOC are currently focused on driving up public support ahead of the crunch referendum on the Olympic bid on Nov. 29.
But Hörmann said that as soon as the bid gets the go-ahead, Hamburg wants to be ready to present itself strongly internationally. More prominent German athletes will be brought on board to achieve this objective, he indicated.
Earlier this week, Hamburg's 2024 opponents were dealt a blow in their push to derail the city’s Olympic ambitions. The anti-Olympic groups failed to get 10,000 valid signatures on a petition that would allow them to be given space for their arguments in the 16-page bid brochure to be distributed to voters.
Joining the Hanseatic city in the 2024 bid race are Budapest, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome. The IOC vote comes in September 2017.
Reported by Mark Bisson
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