WADA announces candidates for 2022 Athlete Council election

Further to the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA's) communications of 30 May 2022and 6 July 2022, calling for interested candidates for the upcoming election for eight positions on the Agency's new 20-member Athlete Council, WADA is pleased to announced that it received 34eligible nominations for the eight seats (referred to as Group 2 - see below).

WADA President Witold Bańka said: "We are excited by the number of athletes that have expressed interest in becoming members of the Athlete Council. It is clear that athletes are ready to embrace the opportunity for their voices to be heard and their views to be integrated into WADA's governance and decision-making processes."

The 34 candidates are listed below in alphabetical order by name. A consolidation of the athlete profiles, with additional details can be found in one document here.

	Name	Sport Nationality	Nominating International Federation Athlete Commission
1	BATES,Evan	USA	International Skating Union (ISU)
2	BENGTSSON,Gunnar	Sweden	World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF)
3	BERRER, Michael	Germany	International Tennis Federation (ITF)
4	ĆOSIĆ,Ivan	Croatia	World ParaVolley (WPV)
5	EGAN,Clare	USA	Biathlon (IBU)
6	GARCIA G.,Andrés	Guatemala	Kickboxing (WAKO)
7	GIBSON,Sean	Ireland	World Lacrosse (WL)
8	GOMEZ,Inaki	Canada	World Athletics (WA)
9	HARSS,Jennifer	Germany	International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)
10	HEDMAN,Deta	England	World Darts Federation (WDF)
11	HEGYI,Dora	Hungary	International Gymnastics Federation (FIG)
12	HERNANDEZ CUELLAR,Ana Sophia	Guatemala	World Pentathlon (UIPM)
13	HORN,Martin	Germany	World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS)
14	KIT,Kristen	Canada	World Rowing (WR-FISA)
15	KNOERR,Jérémy	Thailand	International Ski Mountaineering Fed. (ISMF)
16	KONSTANTINOVA,Sandra	Russia	International Wushu Federation (IWUF)
17	LIM,Tiffani	Malaysia	International Esports Federation (IESF)
18	MAY,Bill	USA	International Swimming Federation (FINA)
19	MAZDZER,Christopher	USA	Federation of International Luge (FIL)
20	MBEPA GAULOU,Antony Desire	Rep of Congo	International Kurash Association (IKA)
21	ODUBER,Randolph	Aruba/ Netherlands	World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)
22	O'LEARY, Patrick	Ireland	International Canoe Federation (ICF)
23	OSEI,Forrester Christopher	Ghana	International Weightlifting Federation (IWF)
24	PLECHAN,Agata	Poland	International Floorball Federation (IFF)
25	REGO,Emmanuel Fernando Scheffer Rego	Brazil	International Volleyball Federation (FIVB)
26	RIPPEL,Cassio	Brazil	International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF)
27	RISKALLA,Rodolpho	Brazil	Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI)
28	SABLJAK,Ella	Australia	International Wheelchair Basketball Fed. (IWBF)
29	SCOTT,Thomas	USA	World Karate Federation (WKF)
30	TAN,Yuhan	Belgium	Badminton World Federation (BWF)
31	VAN DEN BERG,Jan	South Africa	International Practical Shooting Confed. (IPSC)
32	VIDAL HERRERA,Nilo	Spain	World Squash Federation (WSF)
33	WYATT,Marcus	Great Britain	International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Fed. (IBSF)
34	ZECCHINI,Alessia	Italy	World Underwater Federation (CMAS)

Eligibility

To be eligible for nomination, athletes were required to meet eligibility criteria, as outlined in Article 4 of the WADA Athlete Council Election Procedure. These included: being an International-Level Athlete as defined by the World Anti-Doping Code, within the last nine years, and being from the same sport as the International Federation Athlete Commission (IF AC) nominating them. In addition, the IF AC nominating an athlete was required to meet eligibility criteria, as outlined in Article 3 of the Election Procedure. All 34 candidates were reviewed and confirmed by the Election Scrutineer.

To be eligible to vote in the election, all IF ACs were to meet the same criteria as an IF AC nominating a candidate. All IF ACs were advised of the candidate list on 29 July 2022, and were then asked to advise if they wished to vote in the election, and if so, to confirm they were eligible to vote. A total of 61 IF ACs have been confirmed by the Election Scrutineer as able to vote.

Election

The election will be held virtually via an online voting platform between 29-31 August 2022. Only those IF ACs registered and deemed eligible will be able to vote.

The elected candidates will be confirmed by the Election Scrutineer on 1 September and will be announced by WADA shortly after.

WADA Athlete Committee Chair Ben Sandford said: "We are definitely off to a good start with the elections for the Athlete Council. Athletes need to be at the core of what WADA does and there is a strong drive within the athlete community worldwide to be more involved and improve athlete representation within anti-doping. It's great to see so many athletes stepping up wanting to be involved and meet the challenge."

Council Composition

The new Athlete Council will be composed of athletes' representatives chosen by athletes and grouped as follows:

• Group 1:Five athletes appointed by the International Olympic Committee's and International Paralympic Committee's Athlete Commissions;
• Group 2:Eight athletes elected by the Athlete Commissions of International Federations (IFs); and
• Group 3:Seven other athletes, to be selected by an appointment panel made up by a majority of athletes, to fill skills and diversity gaps.

Group 3

A call for interest for the Group 3 athletes will be announced in early September 2022. All eligible athletes, including candidates for Group 2 who did not get elected, will be able to apply. Candidates will then be selected by the appointment panel based on a skills and diversity analysis.

For more information on the Athlete Council, please visit WADA's dedicated webpage.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to direct them to [email protected].

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