DeFrantz, 60, beat Canada's Dick Pound and Malaysia's Prince Tunku Imran for the spot on the Executive Board vacated by Singapore's Ser Miang Ng, whose eight-year spell came to an end.

She beat Pound, former President of the World Anti-Doping Agency, by one just one, polling 41 to his 40 after Tunku had been eliminated in the first round.

DeFrantz, an Olympic rowing bronze medallist in the eights at Montreal 1976, had previously served on the Executive Board between 1992 and 2001, including four as vice-president.

Along with Pound, she had stood unsuccessfully for President of the IOC when Juan Antonio Samarach stood down in 2001 and was replaced by Jacques Rogge.

USOC President Larry Probst is sworn in as a member of the International Olympic Committee

The 62-year-old Probst, President of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), received 71 votes for and 20 against in the election, which was held shortly before the IOC chose a new leader to replace Jacques Rogge.

Probst, chairman of video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc, becomes the fourth US member on the IOC, joining DeFrantz, Jim Easton and Angela Ruggiero.

His election continues to repair the badly-damaged relationship between the IOC and USOC which has contributed to unsuccessful bids to host the Olympics and Paralympics from New York 2012 and Chicago 2016.

"I'm honoured by today's election and proud to serve as a member of the International Olympic Committee," said Probst.

"It has been a great privilege to serve as chairman of the United States Olympic Committee and I look forward to continuing our collective efforts to advance the Olympic Movement and its important values of respect, friendship and excellence."

Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov is congratulated by Jacques Rogge after officially becoming an International Olympic Committee member

President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, also won a place on the IOC but with more negative votes in the secret balloting than Probst. 

The count was 63-29, with two abstentions.

The arrival of the 57-year-old also brings the number of Russians on the IOC up to four - the others being the country's former Sports Minister Vitaly Smirnov, four-time Olympic swimming gold emdallist Alexander Popov and Shamil Tarpishchev, President of the All Russia Tennis Association.

Zhukov indicated that he would play an active role within the IOC. 

"We should be involved in all opportunities to increase the representation of Russia on the IOC, in part through the federations," said Zhukov.

Probst and Zhukov were both elected as members representing the National Olympic Committees while Sweden's Stefan Holm, the Athens 2004 Olympic high jump champion, was chosen to fill a vacant place on the IOC Athletes' Commission.

KLM President and chief executive Camiel Eurlings officially joins the International Olympic Committee

Another former top athlete Kenya's Paul Tergat, the double Olympic 10,000 metres silver medallist, was one of six people elected as individual members.

He was joined by Octavian Morariu, a former international rugby player who is President of the Romanian Olympic Committee, Bernard Rajzman, chief of Brazil's National Commission of Athletes and a State Congressman, and the Netherlands' Camiel Eurlings, President and chief executive of airline KLM. 

The new members were completed by Mikaela Maria Antonia Cojuangco-Jaworski, winner of two gold medals in show jumping at the 2002 Asian Games and now a television host and actress from the Philippines, and Ethiopia's Dagmawit Girmay Berhane, deputy chair of the IOC and International Relations Committee at the World Badminton Federation.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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