New IOC Members

I am back to writing for the blog as things are settling down a little bit.

At the Closing Ceremony in Vancouver (although one would not have known it from NBC's coverage), two new athlete members were elected to the IOC. As part of the revisions to the IOC following the Salt Lake bidding scandal, each Olympic Games the participating athletes elect from among their peers members of the IOC. At each Winter Games, two members are elected.

British skeleton slider Adam Pengilly and American ice hockey player Angela Ruggiero were elected to eight year terms, replacing Swedish alpine champion Pernilla Wiberg and Italian cross country champion Manuela di Centa.

Pengilly was the 2009 world championship silver medalist. As I have mentioned before, I was standing right next to his father in Lake Placid last year as he climbed from ninth to second to grab that silver medal. Ruggiero gives the United States another IOC member, back up to three (along with Anita De Frantz and Jim Easton). The US has had just two members since volleyball player Bob Ctvrtlik's term expired in 2008. The lack of US members (Great Britain, Italy & Switzerland all have at least four) was noted as a contributing factor to Chicago's failed candidacy for the 2016 Olympics.