The president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee COSR has officially become a member of the International Olympic Committee IOC, with 73 votes for and 14 against.

Octavian Morariu (in picture) was named as an IOC member during the first session of the Olympic committee held recently in Buenos Aires.

Morariu, a former rugby player, is one of the 9 new members of the committee, which will eventually reach 113 members.

This allowed him to vote for the new president of the organization, named as former German fencer Thomas Bach.

The 52-year old Romanian has been a president of the Romanian Olympic Committee since 2004.

He is the fourth Romanian to become a member of the IOC, after prince George Ghe. Bibescu, between 1899 and 1901, George Alexandro Plagino, the first Romanian athlete to attend the modern Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, and Alexandru Şiperco, who was a member between 1955 and 1998.

The other eight new members of the international board are Bernard Rajzman of Brazil, Mikaela Maria Antonia Cojuangco-Jaworski of the Philippines, Alexander Zhukov of Russia, Paul Kibii Tergat of Kenya, Lawrence Probst III of the United States, Dagmawit Girmay Berhane of Ethiopia, Camiel Eurlings of the Netherlands and Stefan Holm of Sweden.

The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the Olympic Movement.

The members are volunteers who represent the IOC and Olympic Movement in their country (they are not delegates of their country within the IOC).

Since 1999, the number of members has been limited to 115, which includes a maximum of 70 individual members, 15 active athletes, 15 representatives of the International Federations and 15 representatives of the National Olympic Committees.

editor@romania-insider.com