Kim Jae-youl elected to International Olympic Committee

International Skating Union (ISU) President Kim Jae-youl was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday, becoming the 12th Korean to join the Olympic governing body.

Kim Jae-youl

International Skating Union (ISU) President Kim Jae-youl was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday, becoming the 12th Korean to join the Olympic governing body.

Kim was elected at a general meeting of the IOC in Mumbai, India Tuesday with 72 of 73 votes in his favor.

With the addition of Kim, there are now three Koreans active on the 107-member IOC. Olympic table tennis gold medalist Ryu Seung-min, the vice chair of the 2024 Gangwon Youth Olympics Organizing Committee, has been a member since 2016, with Korean Sport & Olympic Committee President Lee Kee-heung elected in 2019.

Kim joins the IOC a year after he was elected as president of the ISU, the global governing body for competitive ice skating. He is the 12th president in the skating organization’s 130-year history and previously served as an ISU Council member.

Kim, the son-in-law of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, has held a number of sports administrative roles, including as president of the Korea Skating Union from 2011 to 2016. He stepped down from that role when he was appointed to the ISU Council in 2016 as the body’s rules did not allow him to hold both posts. He has since focused on more international administrative roles.

He was executive vice president of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, vice president of the Korea Olympic Committee and a member of the IOC Coordination Committee for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Kim is now following in the footsteps of his late father-in-law Lee, who was elected as an IOC member in 1996 and later became an honorary member in 2017.

Seven other new members were elected to the IOC Tuesday: Former Israeli judoka Yael Arad, Hungarian sports administrator Balazs Furjes, former Peruvian volleyball player Celcilia Roxana Tait Villacorta, Malaysian actress and star of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" (2022) Michelle Yeoh, German sports manager Michael Mronz, International Table Tennis Federation President Petra Sorling and Tunisian Olympic Committee President Mehrez Boussayene.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]