UCI chief, Fourcade boost French IOC presence, India lands 2023 session

BEIJING : International Cycling Union (UCI) President David Lappartient and fellow Frenchman Martin Fourcade became International Olympic Committee (IOC) members on Saturday, boosting French membership to four ahead of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

Lappartient joined as president of his federation while Fourcade, France's most decorated biathlete with five Olympic gold medals, was picked to join the IOC athletes' commission following elections by athletes attending the Beijing Games.

France already have two IOC members in Jean-Christophe Rolland and Guy Drut.

Sweden's Alpine skier Frida Hansdotter was also elected as an athletes' commission member.

Athletes' commission members are elected onto the IOC for an eight-year period.

South Sudan's Yiech Pur Biel, a member of the refugee team at Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, was also elected to the IOC.

The Olympic body also picked Mumbai to host the 2023 IOC session, the first time a session will be held in India since 1983.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Peter Rutherford)