(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Khalid al Zubair, the Oman Olympic Committee (OOC) chairman, is set to become an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, when the 131st IOC Session is held in Lima, Peru, from September 13-16.
Zubair is one of the nine names proposed by the IOC Executive Board for election after the IOC members' election commission completed the process of picking the nominees. All the nine proposed members have been vetted by the IOC ethics commission, which had conducted integrity checks.
With the executive board clearing the names, it is all but a formality for the nine to be inducted as IOC members in Lima.
Zubair was nominated as one of the two members representing National Olympic Committees (NOCs) or a continental association of NOCs. The other member proposed is Neven Ivan Ilic Alvarez from Chile.
The nomination of the 46 year old Zubair as an IOC member is set to give a boost to the Olympic Movement not only in Oman but also in the region. He will become only the second ever Omani to be part of the illustrious IOC family.
Former OOC vice-chairman Habib Abdulnabi Macki was the previous IOC member from the sultanate. He was elected during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark in October, 2009 and served his term. IOC members are elected for a period of eight years with a mandate to be re-elected.
Speaking toMuscat Daily
, Taha al Kishry, the OOC secretary-general, said, 'We are delighted at the nomination of Khalid al Zubair as an IOC member. It will bring a lot of focus on Oman and also underlines the progress the OOC has made at international stage. The nomination underlines the respect and strides Oman has made in the Olympic Movement and we are all proud to have Khalid lead OOC to greater heights.'
Zubair is one of only two Asians to have been nominated, the other being Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul from Thailand.
In Lima, five of the proposed are individual members, which include three women.
The other four are representatives of the constituents of the Olympic Movement - the NOCs and the international federations. The four have been chosen in close consultation with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
'These nine candidates will add to the huge range of knowledge and experience within the IOC membership. In line with Olympic Agenda 2020, the IOC has taken another step towards a more diverse membership, which will continue to drive reform and reflect the world in which we live,' IOC President Thomas Bach said on the official IOC website.
These nine candidates offer various skillsets and come from backgrounds as diverse as sports, management, volunteering, engineering, business administration, commerce and tourism, the media and NGOs.
Besides Zubair and Alvarez, the other candidates proposed as individual members are Baklai Temengil (Palau), Jiri Kejval (Czech Republic), Kristin Kloster Aasen (Norway), Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul (Thailand) and Luis Mejia Oviedo (Dominican Republic). The two members representing international federations are Jean-Christophe Rolland (France) and Ingmar de Vos (Belgium). With the addition of nine new members the total number of IOC members will be 103.
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