The Dutch wheelchair basketball player was her country's youngest Paralympian at Beijing 2008 and has appeared in four Paralympics, including winning gold in Tokyo and bronze in London and Rio.

Visser, who was elected in September and will conduct a three-year rather than four-year term due to Tokyo 2020's one-year postponement, succeeds Canadian Chelsey Gotell, who was elected to the Council in 2017.

The 29-year-old will have voting rights on the IPC Governing Board, attending her first meeting on Thursday (November 18), and the IPC says it will nominate her to join the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission.

She completes a nine-strong Council - six Summer Paralympic athletes and three Winter Paralympic athletes - and leads the body to act as the collective voice of Para athletes, which includes providing feedback and advice and reporting to the IPC Governing Board on behalf of Para athletes. 

The chair is elected by their fellow Athletes' Council members.

The other five Summer athletes are Italy's Martina Caironi and Cuba's Omara Durand Elias from Para athletics, Brazil's Daniel Dias and Japan's Takayuki Suzuki from Para swimming, and Iran's Zahra Nemati of Para archery. 

The three Winter athletes are France's Marie Bochet of Para alpine skiing and Norway's Birgit Skarstein and Finland's Rudolf Klemetti of Para nordic skiing.

There will be an election for the three Winter positions at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics next year, with National Paralympic Committees having to nominate their athletes for election by December 3 2021.

Visser said: "Being elected as chairperson is a huge honour to me. 

"I am excited and proud to be representing the voice of the athletes. 

"I'd like to thank Chelsey for her leadership and commitment as chair of the Athletes' Council.

"I am looking forward to building on the foundations and achievements of the Athletes' Council and engaging with athlete representatives within the athlete community."

Andrew Parsons, IPC President, said: "Congratulations to Jitske on becoming the new IPC Athletes’ Council chairperson. 

"She is straight into the action attending her first IPC Governing Board meeting the day after being elected, but Jitske has extensive experience of the Games and Para sport, so I’m sure that she will do her fellow athletes proud.

"The last two years have been extremely challenging for athletes, but the Athletes’ Council has played a crucial role ensuring that when decisions have been made that their voice has been central to everyone’s thinking. 

"The IPC Governing Board welcomes their continued input to ensure that we remain an athlete-centric organisation."