International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and International Skating Union (ISU) Presidents Petra Sörling and Kim Jae-youl of South Korea have been proposed to become International Olympic Committee (IOC) members, along with Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh, a former Bond girl.
They are among eight people nominated following today’s IOC Executive Board meeting held online.
Yael Arad of Israel, Balázs Fürjes of Hungary, Cecilia Roxana Tait Villacorta of Peru, and Michael Mronz of Germany have been proposed as independent individuals, while Mehrez Boussayene, who is head of the Tunisian Olympic Committee (CNOT), has also been put forward.
All eight are due to be formally voted as IOC members at the Session in Mumbai from October 15 to 17.
“These candidates bring added value to the work of the IOC because of their experience and diverse expertise in different walks of life,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.
“What they all have in common is their love of sport and their strong belief in the Olympic values and what the IOC stands for.
“Furthermore, the selection of four women reinforces the IOC’s commitment to gender equality by increasing the membership to 44 women, which brings the percentage of women up to 41.1 percent.”
Sörling made history in November 2021 by becoming the first woman to be elected as President of the ITTF.
The Swedish official has served on the ITTF Executive Committee since 2009, had three terms as executive vice-president of finance, and was chair of the Swedish Table Tennis Association for eight years.
Kim, the brother-in-law of the tech giant and IOC sponsor Samsung’s de facto leader Lee Jae-Yong, became the leader of the ISU in June 2022 after seeing off three of his rivals in a landslide election victory.
He became the first non-European to lead the ISU since its foundation in 1892.
He previously led the Korea Skating Union from 2011 and 2016 and was a member of the IOC Coordination Commission for Beijing 2022, having served as an executive vice-president of the Pyeongchang 2018 Organising Committee.
Among the other candidates include Yeoh, a Malaysian film star who made history this year when she became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress at the Oscars for her performance in the superhero comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once.
The 61-year-old Yeoh, a Malaysian, is also famous for starring in James Bond’s Tomorrow Never Dies as well as other films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Kung Fu Panda 2.
In July, Yeoh married Frenchman Jean Todt, President of the International Automobile Federation from 2009 to 2021.
The list of candidates also features two Olympic medallists in Arad and Tait.
Arad was a top judoka, winning women’s under-61 kilogram silver at Barcelona 1992 and picking up two medals.
She became the first woman to be elected President of the Olympic Committee of Israel in November 2021.
Tait was part of Peru’s silver-medal-winning volleyball team at Seoul in 1988 and has also achieved medals at the World Championships and Pan American Games.
Fürjes was the co-chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the recent World Athletics Championships in Hungary and is on the IOC Coordination Commission for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
He is also Hungary’s former State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for the development of Budapest and led the Hungarian capital’s previous bid for the 2024 Olympics.
Mronz was notably head of the Local Organising Committee of the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen and is a promoter of the BMW Open tennis tournament held annually in Munich.
Boussayène was re-elected as CNOT President for a third successive term in December 2021.
He was first elected in 2013 and is currently serving a third-year term that is due to end in 2024.
The IOC has also published the list of seven members who will be seeking re-election this year with age limits taken into consideration.
Among those that are being proposed for another eight-year term is Prince Albert II of Monaco who was first elected in 1985.
Ukraine’s Valeriy Borzov, who claimed Olympic gold in the men’s 100 meters and 200m for the Soviet Union at Munich in 1972, is the next longest-serving IOC member on the list for re-election having joined the membership in 1994.