MILAN (AP) — Winter Olympic competitors in Milan Cortina have chosen a South Korean bobsledder and an Estonian biathlon athlete to serve as their voices on the International Olympic Committee following Thursday’s election results.
Yunjong Won from South Korea and Johanna Talihärm from Estonia secured eight-year positions that will give them voting power in selecting the host city for the 2036 Summer Olympic Games.
In the competitive election featuring 11 candidates, Won secured the top spot with 1,176 votes while Talihärm claimed the second available position with 983 votes. Olympic officials reported that 2,393 athletes participated in the voting process, representing 83.4% of all eligible Winter Games competitors.
Several prominent athletes were unsuccessful in their bids, including Chinese figure skating champion Cong Han, Canadian ski cross Olympic winner Marielle Thompson, and Ukrainian aerials skiing champion Oleksandr Abramenko.
Won, age 40, guided his four-person bobsled team to a silver medal during the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics on home soil. His Olympic experience spans three Winter Games, having also participated in Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022.
Talihärm, 32, brings experience from competing in the same three recent Winter Olympic competitions.
The pair will join the IOC’s current roster of 107 members, taking over from Finnish ice hockey athlete Emma Terho and Norwegian cross-country skier Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, whose eight-year commitments conclude this Sunday. The IOC maintains 15 designated positions specifically for elected athlete representatives.
Terho has served athletes’ interests on the IOC Executive Board since 2021. She succeeded Kirsty Coventry in that role, who now holds the position of IOC president.
