WADA announces candidates for Athlete Council election

Election to be held via online voting platform between 10-12 December 2024 

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased to announce the candidates for the election of the eight athletes who will form WADA’s Athlete Council Group 2ⁱ for 2025-2027. In response to WADA’s communication of 11 September inviting all eligible International Federation (IF) Athlete Commissions (ACs) that are Signatories to the World Anti-Doping Code (Code) to present candidates, the Agency received 26 nominations, each of which has been reviewed and deemed eligible by the Election Scrutineer. As a reminder, candidates and IF ACs were required to meet several eligibility criteria, all of which are detailed in the Election Procedure.  

WADA’s Athlete Council Chair, Ryan Pini, and WADA’s Head of Athlete Engagement, Karine Henrie, were both very pleased to see that the call for nominations attracted so many excellent candidates. They said: “We are thrilled to see the level of interest in joining the Athlete Council. WADA’s Athlete Engagement Department works in close collaboration with the Athlete Council to ensure that the athlete experience is captured in everything that we do. We are looking forward to working with any new and/or returning members of Group 2 to kick off several key initiatives for athletes in 2025. All the best to all candidates.” 

The 26 candidates are listed below in alphabetical order by name. Please note that candidate biographies will be published on our website and social media on Tuesday 19 November. 

Group 2 Election Procedure 

The election will be held virtually via an online voting platform between 10-12 December 2024. Only those IF ACs registered and deemed eligible will be able to vote.  

The rules that govern the election can be found within the Election Procedure, including: 

• eligibility criteria for IF ACs; 
• role of the Election Scrutineer;  
• voting procedure; and 
• provisions related to potential infringement of the procedure and protection of personal information.  

The official list of candidates was communicated directly to all AC Chairs of IFs that are Signatories to the Code earlier today, at which time they were asked to advise if they wished to vote in the election, and if so, to confirm they were eligible to vote. To be eligible to vote in the election, all IF ACs are to meet the same criteria as an IF AC nominating a candidate. 

The elected candidates will be confirmed by the Election Scrutineer, and subsequently publicly announced by 20 December 2024.   

We wish all the candidates the best of luck with their campaigning and the election, and we encourage all eligible IF ACs to vote!  

Should you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact our Athlete Engagement team at athlete@wada-ama.org. For more information on the Athlete Council, please visit our website. 

Note:

(i) The Athlete Council is composed of the following three groups of athlete representatives:

• Group 1: Five athletes appointed by the International Olympic Committee’s and International Paralympic Committee’s ACs;

• Group 2: Eight athletes elected by IF ACs; and

• Group 3: Seven other athletes, selected by an appointment panel made up by a majority of athletes, to fill skills and diversity gaps.