The Frenchwoman has been selected after an internal vote between Commission members, who were all confirmed in their roles during the FIAS World Championships in Sochi last month.

Fournier has automatically become a member of the FIAS Executive Committee after her appointment, in line with the governing body's statutes.

"I am very happy to have been elected to represent athletes in the FIAS Athletes' Commission," she said. 

"We have sportsmen from almost every continent, male and female, and everybody is eager to help our sport evolve. 

"In a few days we have already exchanged a lot of ideas, the members are very active and I believe with this team we'll go far.

"I am proud and thankful to have been elected chairperson, it means a lot to me as I will be voicing our team's ideas to the Executive Committee, which has the power to change things. 

"If we have strong proposals, they'll definitely be heard.

"Our goal within the Athletes' Commission is to be able to listen to every athlete worldwide, to hear criticism and ideas in order to propose an action plan to develop our sport through the improvement of competitions, gatherings and communication."

Fournier is joined on the Commission by Ivana Jandric of Serbia, Maria Guedez of Venezuela, Sofien Hawachi of Tunisia, Stsiapan Papou of Belarus, Maria Oryashkova of Bulgaria and Nina Cutro-Kelly of the United States.

There are notably no Russians, despite the country inventing the sport and regularly dominating international competitions.

"Thanks to social media such as Facebook and Instagram, we are already gathering ideas worldwide," Fournier, a member of Peace and Sport's Champions Club, added. 

"Athletes are getting in touch with us to share their ideas, and we are starting to write our next proposals.

"In the past we had already proposed ideas of improving refereeing, some of which were implemented during the 2017 Sochi World Championships.

"Our next ideas are to introduce new weight categories in accordance with the International Olympic Committee requirements, introduce new rules to dynamise sambo, increase the number of international training camps, create tools to help athletes with anti-doping measures, and find ways to develop sambo worldwide.

"There is still much to be done, but I'm sure we'll do great with this amazing new team."