The Hindu : Sport : Moon elected to IOC athletes’ commission

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

Moon elected to IOC athletes’ commission

New Delhi: Former taekwondo Olympic champion Moon Dae-sung was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) athletes’ commission.

The 32-year-old Korean, a heavyweight gold medallist in the 2004 Athens Games, got the highest number of votes among 29 high-profile athletes seeking election on Friday.

Moon, the first Asian Olympian ever to be voted to the athletes’ commission, will serve for eight years on the 19-member panel, whose role is to act as a link between sportsmen and the Olympic governing body.

Only active Olympians or athletes who have participated in previous Games are allowed candidacy and every athlete participating in the Beijing Games was eligible to vote.

Moon received 3,220 of the 7,216 votes and was followed by Russian swimming legend Alexander Popov (1,903). German fencer Claudia Bokel came in third (1,836 votes) followed by Cuban volleyball star Yumilka Ruiz Luaces (1,571).

All four were elected to the commission and will be granted full rights as IOC members, including voting on Olympic venues and other major decisions.

Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang, Australian swimmer Grant Hackett and Kenyan marathon runner Paul Tergat were among those who failed to get elected. — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport