While there are some notable new chairs for some of the IOC commissions, the basic structure of the two dozen plus commissions remains in place for now in the Bach administration.
New chairs include:
The Princess Royal, Nominations
Ser Miang Ng, Finance
Tsunekazu Takeda, Marketing
John Coates, Juridical and Sport and Law
Ugur Erdener, Medical
Larry Probst, Press
Lydia Nsekera, Women and Sport
"I’ve served my time. It’s time for new faces," former Women and Sport chair Anita DeFrantz tells around the rings about the change. She will remain honorary member of the commission, which he has led since it was founded 20 years ago. Her successor, Lydia Nsekera is from Burundi and has been active with FIFA.
Ser Miang Ng, IOC member in Singapore since 1998, was one of the half-dozen candidates seeking the IOC presidency won by Bach last September. He replaces Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, also one of the defeated presidential candidates.
Bach surrenders his leadership of the Juridical and Sport and Law commissions to Australian John Coates. He's one of the most multi-hatted IOC members, already leader of the coordination commission for Tokyo 2020 and president of the Court for Arbitration of Sport and Australian Olympic Committee president.
Pierre Olivier Beckers will take over as chair of the small but influential Audit Commission, another panel once headed by Carrion. Beckers is president of the Belgian NOC and retired last year as chairman of one of Europe’s largest grocery companies.
Great Britain’s Princess Royal takes her first commission chair in 26 years on the IOC, taking over Nominations from retired Philippines IOC member Francisco Elizalde.
Ugur Erdener, himself a physician as well as president of the Turkish Olympic Committee, is the choice to succeed the retiring Arne Ljungvist.
USOC chair and an IOC member for only six months, Larry Probst will serve as head of the press commission after the retirement of Australia’s Kevan Gosper.
With billions to raise for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Japan’s Tsunekazu Takeda would seem an interesting choice to head the Marketing Commission. He is a leader for Tokyo 2020 and president of the Japan Olympic Committee. Norway IOC member Gerhard Heiberg has stepped down as marketing chair.
Prince Albert of Monaco will lead Sport and Environment, his first chairmanship since becoming a member in 1985.
A chairman without a commission for now at least, is Alexander Zhukov of Russia. His name is put forward on the list to lead the Evaluation Commission for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The rest of that commission will be named in July after the IOC executive board decides which of the five applicant cities should move on to the final phase of bidding. Almaty, Beijing, Kraków, Lviv and Oslo are the cities.
Nearly 300 individuals hold IOC commission membership according to the list released by the IOC.
The full list of IOC commission appointments can be found here.
Written by Ed Hula
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
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