Nawal el Moutawakel for 2016 Job
The IOC member who led the review of the 2012 Olympics bids will head the IOC commission that will study the four cities bidding for 2016.
Nawal el Moutawakel of Morocco was named to the post Thursday by IOC President Jacques Rogge, along with six IOC colleagues.
She will lead the commission on a series of visits to Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo in 2009. Those visits are the only ones permitted by IOC members for the purpose of inspecting the bid cities. The report produced by El Moutawakel and her group will serve as one of the key pieces of information IOC members will use in their vote on 2016, scheduled for next year.
“The team will have the complex and exciting task to evaluate the potential of four highly capable Candidate Cities. Our role will be to assess their technical capabilities in a transparent and neutral way in order to provide IOC members with the information they need to guide their choice on 2 October 2009,” said El Moutawakel in an statement from the IOC.
“We have here a professional team with a wide range of knowledge and experience. I would like to thank Nawal El Moutawakel for accepting to lead it. Nawal did an excellent job as chairwoman of the Evaluation Commission of the 2012 Candidate Cities. As an Olympic champion, a newly elected member of the IOC Executive Board and Sports Minister in Morocco she will bring an invaluable contribution to the Commission,” said the IOC President in a statement.
El Moutawakel, who competed at the Olympics in athletics, is became the first Moroccan to win a gold medal, in the 400m at the 1984 Games. She was elected to the IOC in 1998 and to the Executive Board last month. She currently serves as the Minister for Sport in Morocco.
Other IOC members on the panel include: C.K. Wu of Chinese Taipei and president of AIBA, the international boxing federation; Craig Reedie of Great Britain; Guy Drut of France; Mounir Sabet from Egypt; Alexander Popov of Russia, a member of the IOC Athletes Commission and Els Van Breeda from the Netherlands, president of FIH, the international federation for field hockey.
Still to be named to the panel is a representative of the world’s national Olympic committees as well as lay technical advisers on issues such as transport and the environment.
Dates of the visits to the cities have not been announced but are expected from April to May next year.
Written by Ed HulaEd Hula
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