Kim Jae-yeol, 55, President of the International Ice Skating Union (ISU) and President of the Samsung Research Institute, son-in-law of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, has been elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), following in his father’s footsteps.
Kim received 72 votes in favor and one against out of 73 valid votes cast at the IOC’s 141st Session in Mumbai, India, on Sunday (KST). Kim is expected to boost the international competitiveness of Korean sports.
He is the 12th Korean IOC member in history. Lee Ki-bung (1955-1960), Lee Sang-baek (1964-1966), Kim Jang-young (1967-1977), Kim Taek-soo (1977-1983), Park Jong-kyu (1984-1985), Kim Yong-yong (1986-2005), Lee Kun-hee (1996-2017), Park Yong-sung (2002-2007), Moon Dae-sung (2008-2016), Yoo Seung-min (2016-2024), and Lee Ki-heung (2019-).
Most notably, Kim succeeds Lee as president. Lee served as an IOC member since 1996 and worked to secure the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, but stepped down in 2017 due to ill health.
Kim is the husband of Lee’s second daughter, Samsung Welfare Foundation Chairman Lee Seo-hyun, and has made a mark on the sporting world, serving as president of the Korean Ice and Snow Sports Federation, vice chairman of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee, vice president of the Korean Olympic Committee, member of the IOC Coordination Commission for the Beijing Winter Games, and member of the ISU Executive Board. In June of last year, he became the first non-European to win the ISU presidential election and was subsequently elected to the IOC as a representative of the International Federation (IF).
South Korea will now have three IOC members for the first time in 18 years. Kim, along with Korean Sports Ministry President Lee Ki-heung and Korea Table Tennis Association President Yoo Seung-min, will be able to influence major events in international sports, including the selection of Olympic venues. The three IOC members are the first since the early 2000s, when President Lee Kun-hee, the late Kim Yong-yong, and former Doosan Group Chairman Park Yong-sung served.메이저놀이터
However, Yoo’s term as an IOC member will last until next year’s Paris Olympics. Athletes serve eight-year terms, and Yoo was elected at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He will be succeeded by South Korea’s “golf queen” Inbee Park, who will be up for election during the Paris Games.
The IOC has a maximum of 115 members. They are made up of 70 individuals, representatives of National Olympic Committees (NOCs), IFs and athletes (15 each). The retirement age for IOC members is 80 for those elected before 1999 and 70 for those elected after.
In addition to Kim, eight new members were elected at the Session. Petra Sjöring (SWE), President of the International Table Tennis Federation; Yael Arad (ISRAEL), a former judoka; Cecilia Tait Villacorta (PERU), a former volleyball player and politician; and Yang Zicheng (MALAYSIA – the first Asian woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress). Also elected were sports administrator Balázs Furiesi (Hungary), sports entrepreneur Michael Mronz (Germany) and Tunisian Olympic Committee President Mahrez Boussayneh (Tunisia – male).
Of the 107 active IOC members, France has the most with four. South Korea is followed by China, Japan, Italy, Germany and Sweden with three.
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