IOC Elects Three New Members

New Zealand windsurfer Barbara Kendall, the Spanish president of the International Canoe Federation, Jose Perurena, and Argentinian Olympic Committee president Gerardo Werthein have all been elected as members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The trio take the provisional number of IOC members to 113 at the end of the body’s 123rd meeting in Durban on Saturday.

At the end of this year, there will be six retirements in the IOC. Members Phil Coles (AUS), Chiharu Igaya and Shun-ichiro Okano (JPN), Arne Ljungqvist (SWE), Lassana Palenfo (CIV) and Antun Vrdoljak (CRO) all will retire to become honorary IOC members as they will reach 80 years of age.

Also on Saturday, Sweden’s Gunilla Lindberg was re-elected for a second term on the IOC executive board. Norway’s Gerhard Heiberg had completed his four year term and she took his seat.

Lindberg ran unopposed for the seat on the executive board and received 63 votes with 10 against and four abstentions.

She became IOC member in 1996 at the Atlanta session then in 2000 in Moscow was elected to the IOC executive board then moved up to IOC vice-president in 2004 in Athens. The only other woman to serve as IOC vice-president was Anita DeFrantz whose term ran 1997-2001.

Lindberg joins Nawal El Moutawakel as the only two women on the IOC executive board who ironically filled the place left vacant by Lindberg in 2008.