PARIS (AP) — Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix won an election Thursday to represent athletes at the IOC for the next eight years.
Three of the four newly elected athlete members are women, including Australian canoeist Jessica Fox, a double Olympic medalist in Paris, and Kim Bui, a member of the Germany gymnastic team who wore unitards at the Tokyo Olympics in a protest against the “sexualization” of female uniforms in the sport.
Fourth place in the vote by 6,576 athletes at the Paris Olympics went to Marcus Daniell, the New Zealand tennis player who won a bronze medal in men’s doubles at Tokyo three years ago.
Felix, the now-retired United States sprinting great, topped the poll with support from 2,880 of her peers, the International Olympic Committee said.
Each of the athlete members gets an eight-year term on the International Olympic Committee. The big decisions they will be involved with include picking hosts for the 2036 and 2040 editions of the Summer Games.
“My biggest goal is to hear, and take some time to listen to what is going on,” Felix said.
Athletes are eligible as election candidates if they competed in the current or previous Olympics. Felix competed in her fifth Summer Games at Tokyo three years ago. She won medals on each trip to the Olympics, including a gold in the 4×400-meter relay in her farewell.
The winners from a slate of 29 candidates will replace four outgoing athlete members who all were elected at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva, who holds the women’s pole vault world record, is among the outgoing members.
The IOC has a maximum of 115 members, which includes 16 athletes as well as members of royal families in Europe and Asia, a head of state — the Emir of Qatar — former heads of government, sports officials, former Olympic athletes and an Oscar-winning actor, Michelle Yeoh.
Felix and Fox already were IOC-appointed members of the Olympic athletes commission, where the American pushed for a progressive landmark at the Paris Games: A nursery at the athletes’ village where parent-athletes could spend time with their children.
That project was one of her “wildest dreams” on getting involved in Olympic politics, Felix said Thursday, ”inspired by coming back to competition with my daughter.”
“It moved very quickly. I thought, maybe LA and they were like ‘Maybe we can make this happen in Paris.’ That was really encouraging,” Felix said. The 38-year-old American is an advisor on athlete issues for organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Fox’s election gives Australia an extra Olympic voice ahead of the Brisbane Summer Games in 2032.
“With the term running through to Brisbane 2032, that is fantastic for us as a host nation … to ensure that the athlete experience is at the heart of the Olympic movement right into that Brisbane runway,” Fox said.
The four new athlete members will swear the Olympic oath in Paris on Saturday.
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