Nominations for Two New IOC Members

(ATR) With the membership of the IOC about to drop below 100 members, two new members are about to be nominated, IOC sources tell Around the Rings.

Nenad Lalovic, president of United World Wrestling, will be nominated for one of the 15 slots on the IOC earmarked for federation leaders. Lalovic took over as president of the federation in 2013 when the IOC Executive Board voted to eliminate the sport from the 2020 program.

At that time known by the acronym FILA, Lalovic guided the federation through a range of reforms that helped overturn the EB recommendation and keep wrestling on the program through the 2024 Games.

Lalovic, who is from Serbia, turns 57 this year and can serve until age 70, as long as he is federation president.

The second new member proposed is Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye, president of the Senegal National Olympic and Sports Committee. He has held the post since 2001, now in his third term.

He is a respected businessman in Senegal with close ties to the government. Ndiaye will take one of the 15 slots on the IOC designated for federation leaders.

Both new members are the first to be mooted by the newly named IOC Commission on Election of IOC Members, chaired by the Princess Royal, the senior member of the IOC in Great Britain.

Under a new mandatepromulgated as a result of Olympic Agenda 2020, the commission is supposed to expand the pool of candidates beyond the routine categories of sport or NOC involvement, such as business and the arts. Finding more women candidates is another mission, with females making up 23 of the 101 current members.

At least three members are due to retire this year by turning age 80: Lambis Nikolaou of Greece, Toni Khoury of Lebanon and James Easton of the U.S.

The commission on election of new members also reviews the files of IOC members who are up for renewal of their terms that cover eight years.

Both members subject to term renewal this year were approved by the commission and the EB. Patrick Baumann of Switzerland and Indonesian Rita Subowo will face a vote by their IOC colleagues at the end of the upcoming IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur in early August.

Lalovic and Ndiaye will be subject to confirmation votes at the same time. That election comes three days after the IOC votes on the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, so neither will be eligible to take part in that decision.

Written and reported in Lausanne by Ed Hula.

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.