Uğur Erdener, the president of World Archery, has been appointed with unanimous assent as the new president of SportAccord, the global sports event organization, by its executive committee.

Erdener has served as president of World Archery since 2005 and has been an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member since 2008 (serving as vice president from 2016 to 2020), as well as being the chair of the IOC medical and scientific Commission, a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee, a member of the board of the International Testing Agency, and vice president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.

Since 2011, he has also been president of the National Olympic Committee of Türkiye.

Erdener, who will serve a four-year term as president, will be supported by the seven new members of the new SportAccord executive committee after the general assembly revised SportAccord’s governance structure so that all international federation umbrella bodies will be represented.

This includes Ingmar De Vos, an ASOIF representative and president of the International Equestrian Federation, and Petra Sörling, another ASOIF representative and also president of the International Table Tennis Federation.

Also included are Einars Fogelis, an Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations representative and president of the International Luge Federation, and Beau Welling, an AIOWF representative and president of the World Curling Federation.

Finally, there will be Anna Arzhanova, an Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF) representative and president of the World Underwater Federation, Riccardo Fraccari an ARISF representative and president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, and Stefan Fox, an Alliance of Independent Recognised Members of Sport Representative and secretary general of the International Federation of Muaythai Associations.

SportAccord president Uğur Erdener said: “I am grateful for the confidence of my colleagues and I am looking forward to serving SportAccord as president over the next four years.

“I am grateful to my friend Ivo Ferriani [elected SportAccord president in December 2021] for all the work he has done in transforming SportAccord over the last two years and also for the work accomplished by his Executive Committee colleagues Ingmar De Vos, Francesco Ricci Bitti and Luc Tardif."

Erdener succeeds Ferriani, the president of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation and AIOWF, who added: “As my term comes to an end, it is with a spirit of service and a mission accomplished that I hand over the baton to Uğur Erdener. I offer my successor the very best wishes in building, starting from this solid base, a prosperous future for SportAccord and sport as a whole.”