US, Russian Olympic heads nominated for IOC membership

Larry Probst and Alexander Zhukov, presidents of the United States and Russian Olympic Committees, respectively, have been nominated to become new members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Others nominated include Kenya's former world marathon record holder Paul Tergat, and Sweden's 2004 Athens Olympic high jump champion Stefan Holm. Their names were put forward by IOC's executive board meeting here on the eve of the extraordinary session, reports Xinhua.

They will be joined by Romanian Olympic Committee president Octavian Morariu and Brazil's National Commission of Athletes president Bernard Rajzman. Others nominated include Philippines' 39-year-old Mikaela Maria Antonia Cojuangco-Jaworski, an equestrian rider who won a show-jumping gold at the 2002 Busan Asian Games. Ethiopian Olympic Committee secretary general Dagmawit Girmay Berhane and former Dutch politician Camiel Eurlings complete those nominated.

All are expected to be officially endorsed during the IOC session in Buenos Aires, which is due to be held Sep 7-10.

The board also approved the four athletes elected by their peers to the IOC Athletes' Commission at the controversial election during London 2012. They are Slovakia's Danka Bartekova (shooting), Australia's James Tomkins (rowing), Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry (aquatics) and France's Tony Estanguet (canoe-kayak).

The election had been marred after two of the original top four, Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi and Chinese Taipei taekwondo player Mu-yen Chu, were disqualified after breaking the IOC's strict election rules. Both appealed unsuccessfully to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).