IOC Commissions Meet in Lausanne Following Historic Gender Equality Milestone

The commissions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will be gathering for their annual meetings over the next three weeks at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland.

This will be a historic milestone, as for the first time the IOC commissions now have an equal number of women and men. Their members were appointed by IOC President Thomas Bach in September.

In total, there are now 546 positions across the IOC commissions, with 273 occupied by men and 273 by women. This gender balance represents a substantial increase in female representation since the adoption of Olympic Agenda 2020 almost eight years ago, with women accounting for only 20 per cent of commission positions in 2013. In addition, a record high of 13 of the 31 commissions are chaired by women in 2022.

The IOC commissions play a vital role in the organisation’s work, focusing on specific subject areas and making recommendations to the IOC President, the Executive Board and the Session. The composition of each commission includes IOC Members and a range of external experts.

This will also be first time the IOC commissions have met after the changes made in the commission structure to reflect the changing landscape of sport and the strategic goals of Olympic Agenda 2020+5. The meetings will have a hybrid format to allow commission members who cannot travel to Lausanne to join online.

The full list of IOC commissions under the new structure can be found here.