Finish hockey player, American skier elected to IOC Athletes Commission

PyeongChang (South Korea) Feb 22 (IANS) Emma Terho of Finland and Kikkan Randall of the United States were elected to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes Commission on Thursday.

The IOC Election Committee said Terho a former ice hockey player and Randall an American cross-country skier will serve as members of the IOC Athletes Commission for eight years.

Their membership will be officially confirmed at the IOC Session in PyeongChang 180 kms east of Seoul on Sunday reports Yonhap news agency.

The two female athletes will take the seats of Angela Ruggiero of the United States and Adam Pengilly of Britain who will both finish their terms at the end of PyeongChang 2018.

Terho and Randall were among the six candidates who ran for the seats at the IOC Athletes Commission.

The other four were Italian luge great Armin Zoggeler Norwegian cross-country skier Astrid Uhrenholdt Spanish skeleton slider Ander Mirambell and Chinese speed skater Zhang Hong.

The IOC Election Committee chaired by Nicole Hoevertsz said a total of 2 919 athletes were eligible voters and 2 448 or 83.86 percent of them cast their vote the highest turnout recorded in the athletes commission election.

All accredited athletes at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics were asked to vote for two different candidates from two different sports.

Terho earned the most votes among the six candidates at 1 045 while Randall collected 831 votes from her peers.

Jacobsen had 808 followed by Zhang with 787 and Zoeggeler with 761. Mirambell was in the last place with 664.

Terho 36 is a five-time Olympian who won two bronze medals with the Finnish ice hockey team: at Nagano 1998 and at Vancouver 2010.

Randall 35 is in her fifth Winter Games in PyeongChang and delivered the U.S. first Olympic cross-country skiing gold medal on Thursday after she and Jessica Diggins topped the women s cross-country team sprint free competition.

--IANS
sam/bg