IOC Class of 2018: Youth, Diversity

(ATR) New IOC members from South America, Asia, Africa and Europe make up the IOC Class of 2018.

The IOC released a list of nine nominees who range in age from 24 to 59. If all are approved at the IOC session in Buenos Aires it will bring the membership to 106.

Samira Asghari of Afghanistan will be the youngest member if confirmed in October. At 24, she has already served as treasurer of the Afghan NOC.

"Her nomination should send an example to young women in the region," said IOC President Thomas Bach.

Nominated as an individual member, Asghari can stay on the IOC until age 70. That will come 46 years from now in 2064. That could put her in line to become one of the longest-serving IOC members ever. She is one of three people nominated from Asia.

Thirty-four-year-old Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck – or "The Prince with a Personality" – is nominated because he is president of the Bhutanese Olympic Committee.

The third Asian is Morinari Watanabe, president of the International Gymnastics Federation,. He is 59.

Selected for his presidency of the International Paralympic Committee is Andrew Parsons. He is 41 and comes from Brazil.

There are four other individual member nominations. All are eligible to serve until age 70, regardless of what happens to the NOC positions they currently hold.

Daina Gudzineviciute, president of the Lithuanian Olympic Committee, is 52.

Felicite Rwemarika, 60, is first vice president of the Rwandan Olympic Committee.

Camilo Perez Lopez Moreira, president of the Paraguayan Olympic Committee, is 49. He is also president of ODESUR, the organizer of the South American Games.

Giovanni Malago, 59, is president of the Italian Olympic Committee.

"It is a great honor for me. I thank President Bach for the trust he has placed in me," Malago tells Around the Rings. "It is a recognition for my country and for the world of sport that I have always loved and that I will continue to love forever. It will be a role that will allow me to be even closer to the great challenges facing Italy at an international level".

The second proposed member from Africa in the class of 2018 is 43-year-old William Frederick Blick, president of the Ugandan Olympic Committee.

Recommendations for new members were presented by the Princess Royal, who chairs the IOC Members Elections. All have been vetted by the IOC Ethics Commission, "which has conducted integrity checks", says an IOC statement.

Asked by ATR why FIFA president Gianni Infantino and IAAF president Sebastian Coe were not in the proposed list, Bach admitted that they had each been considered by the IOC.

"But we are now in a situation for both of them where we are quickly approaching their election or re-election [next year]. The IOC did not want to give the impression that we would like to interfere in this campaign," he said.

"So the timing now would be too close to these elections."

Bach said he had spoken with Coe during the world championships in London last year: "Seb and I agreed we would respect that he for the time being wants to set other priorities and one of the key priorities being implementing the reforms he has initiated in the IAAF."

The IOC will need a steady stream of new members in the next few years. An analysis shows more than 40 percent of the current membership will leave the IOC in the next five years. The Olympic Charter caps membership at 115.

Written by Ed Hula in Lausanne

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