GENEVA, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese figure skater Han Cong and 10 other athletes will run for election to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes' Commission (AC), the IOC announced on Thursday.
Han, along with his Olympic gold medal-winning partner Sui Wenjing, announced earlier this month their return to competition next season after being absent since their victory at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games.
The 11 athletes were approved by the IOC Executive Board to be candidates for the AC during the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games. The eight men and three women from five different sports and 11 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will vie for the two available positions on the commission.
The list of the candidates is:
Oleksandr Abramenko (Freestyle Skiing, Ukraine)
Zhanbota Aldabergenova (Freestyle Skiing, Kazakhstan)
Dario Cologna (Cross-Country Skiing, Switzerland)
Yohan Goncalves Goutt (Alpine Skiing, Timor-Leste)
Han Cong (Figure Skating, China)
Ilkka Herola (Nordic Combined, Finland)
Adam Konya (Cross-Country Skiing, Hungary)
Magnus Nedregotten (Curling, Norway)
Johanna Taliharm (Biathlon, Estonia)
Marielle Thompson (Freestyle Skiing, Canada)
Won Yun-jong (Bobsleigh, South Korea)
All athletes competing at Milano Cortina 2026 will be eligible to vote, starting Jan. 30. Voting closes Feb. 18, with results announced the following day.
The two candidates who receive the most votes from at least two different sports will be elected to serve eight-year terms on the IOC AC. They will replace Emma Terho and Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen, whose terms will end during the Games.
Following the election, the commission will elect a chair and two vice chairs. ■
