Africa Basketball Championship gold medallist Olumide Oyedeji has been appointed to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Athlete Council.
He is joined by Commonwealth Games champion Ryan Pini of Papua from New Guinea, Canada’s Pan American Games race walk silver medallist Iñaki Gómez and Commonwealth Games bronze medal-winning shooter Gaby Ahrens of Namibia.
Others are El Salvadorean rower Adriana Escobar, Irish Para canoeist Patrick O’Leary and Belgian badminton player Yuhan Tan.
Oyedeji and others were chosen by a selection panel for the third group which is “made up by a majority of athletes, to fill skills and diversity gaps.”
“On behalf of WADA, I would like to extend our congratulations to the final seven members that have been appointed to the Agency’s Athlete Council,” said WADA President Witold Bańka in a statement.
“The Appointment Panel worked hard to ensure all Group 3 applicants were given careful consideration as regards skills and diversity, with the ultimate goal of having as representative a body as possible.
“We are pleased to share that the Council’s members, more than half of which are women, hail from 19 countries from six continents, represent 17 sports, including five Paralympic sports, and come from a wide variety of educational and professional backgrounds.
The new appointments take the Athlete Council up to its 20-member capacity, following the group one and two selections.
There were five athletes appointed by the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee’s Athletes’ Commissions in group one.
For group two, eight athletes were elected by the Athletes’ Commissions of International Federations.
In total, 54 athletes applied to the Council.
Its members are set to meet in person later this year while they are in Lausanne for WADA’s Annual Symposium, set to run from March 14 to 15.
In the Swiss city, they will elect a chair and two representatives to sit on the Board.
