Eight new members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were elected to take the total strength of the global sports umbrella body to 107 as its 141st session concluded here on Tuesday.

Four among the eight were women, bringing the proportion of female representation in the IOC to 41.1 per cent.

“This is in keeping with the IOC’s ambition to lead by example and increase female representation in governance structures,” the IOC said in a statement.

Following a vote, the session elected Israel’s Yael Arad, Hungarian Balazs Furjes and Peru’s Cecilia Roxana Tait Villacorta as independent IOC members.

Malaysian actress and producer Michelle Yeoh and sports entrepreneur Michael Mronz of Germany were also made independent members in accordance with Rule 16.1.1.1 of the Olympic Charter, which allows for up to seven individuals to be elected in special cases without a nationality or National Olympic Committee (NOC) requirement.

Two candidates — one woman and one man — were also elected based on their functions within an international federation. They are Sweden’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) president Petra Sorling and Korea’s International Skating Union (ISU) chief Jae-youl Kim.

Mehrez Boussayene of Tunisia was elected to the IOC membership in his capacity as president of National Olympic Committee.

PTI