IWF announces full composition of Athletes’ Commission
The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) today announced the full composition of its interim Athletes’ Commission, as the federation continues to take steps towards enhancing the inclusion of athletes in the sport’s governance. The Commission will be chaired by Sarah Davies of Great Britain and comprises five male and five female athletes, with full voting rights. One man and one woman have been selected from each Continent to ensure global representation. The members were selected by the IWF Executive Advisory Commission from a pool of athletes nominated by 30 different Member Federations, and were then approved by the Executive Board. The two former Athletes’ Commission members – IWF Congress-elected Executive Board Member, Pyrros Dimas, and the current appointed athletes’ representative, Tom Goegebuer – assisted in the selection process. IWF Interim President Ursula Papandrea said: “We are delighted to announce the composition of our Athletes’ Commission and to get to work in ensuring greater athlete representation in our sport’s governance. We have accelerated the process for appointing the Commission members because we feel strongly that the athlete voice must be heard in our ongoing reform and governance changes. “We would like to thank all the Member Federations who proposed candidates and provided us with such an excellent pool of athletes to choose from. The quality and caliber of the candidates give us much confidence that our sport has a bright future in their hands.” Given the depth of applications that the IWF received, a decision was taken to only consider candidates from Member Federations who do not have representation on the Executive Board. In doing so, the IWF has been able to diversify its membership. In future there will be a formalized election procedure for athletes to elect their representatives. The full composition of the Athletes’ Commission can be found below: Continent Nation Name of athlete Africa Ghana (M) Forrester Christopher OSEI South Africa (W) Mona PRETORIUS Asia China (M) Lyu XIAOJUN Japan (W) Hiromi MIYAKE Europe Germany (M) Jurgen SPIESS France (W) Dora TCHAKOUNTE Oceania Australia (M) Damon KELLY New Zealand (W) Megan Ann SIGNAL Pan America Brazil (M) Fernando REIS Cuba (W) Marina de la Caridad RODRIGUEZ MITJAN Commission Chair: Sarah
