(ATR) "I say goodbye happily," Guatemalan WilliKaltschmitt tells Around The Rings as he ends 31 years as a member of the International Olympic Committee.
As of January 1, 2020, Kaltschmitt, who joined the IOC in 1988, is retired having celebrated his 80th birthday. Four others have also retired under the age 80 rule: Franco Carraro of Italy, Peru’s Iván Dibós, Austin Sealey from Barbados and Samih Moudallal of Syria.
Nigeria NOC President Habu Gumel is the sixth member to retire in 2019. He is covered by the age 70 rule, applying to IOC members elected from 2001.
The Spanish José Perurena , who entered in 2011, also says goodbye to the IOC. In 2015, Perurena turned 70 but extended for four years as a member of the IOC for being the president of the International World Games Association.
"I have had the privilege of working with three IOC presidents and living the current modernization turn of the Olympic Movement," says Kaltschmitt, an experience also shared by Dibos and Carraro.
From January 1, Nawal El Moutawakel of Morocco will replace Kaltschmitt on the IOC Executive Commission.
Kaltschmitt, a former diplomat, was alsothe IOC protocol officer since 2011.
Carraro was president of the Italian Olympic Committee CONI, the Italian Football League, and of the AC Milan club. He belonged to the IOC Executive between 2000 and 2004. Since 2002 he chaired the Program Commission, responsible for selecting the sports for the Summer and Winter Games.
Program Commission vice chair Karl Stoess, president of the Austrian Olympic Committee replaced Carraro from January 1.
ATR has been told that the retired members will be designated as honorary members of the IOC and that each will receive the Olympic Order during the IOC Session next week in Lausanne.
The session, to be held Jan. 9-10 during the start of the Youth Olympic Winter Games, will install three new members: Yasuhiro Yamashita, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, and the presidents of FIFA and the ITF, Gianni Infantino and David Haggerty.
The IOC membership will then stand at 101 at the start of the new year.
With the addition of Haggerty, there will be three U.S. IOC members. Infantino will be the third Swiss. Canada is the only other nation with three IOC members.
Reported by Miguel Hernandez
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