The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is pleased to announce that Laura Smulders (Netherlands) and Liam Phillips (Great Britain) have been elected to represent BMX Racing on the UCI Athletes' Commission, after a vote held during the 2017 UCI BMX World Championships, taking place this week in Rock Hill, SC, USA.
Both riders were chosen from a list of 7 candidates - 5 men and 2 women - by athletes participating in the Championships.
Laura Smulders and Liam Phillips obtained 50% and 30% of the votes respectively.
Of the athletes participating in Rock Hill, 49.64% took part in the vote.
Members of the Commission are elected for a four-year mandate running from the UCI Congress in 2017 to the Congress in 2021.
This week's election is part of the renewal of all UCI Commissions in 2017.
Laura Smulders and Liam Phillips will join Kristina Vogel (Germany) and Kenny De Ketele (Belgium), and Katerina Nash (Czech Republic) and Simon Zahner (Switzerland), respectively elected as track cycling and cyclo-cross representatives.
This year, the UCI has decided to increase the representation of its various disciplines on the UCI Athletes' Commission by modifying its electoral system.
This new voting system will see the UCI Athletes' Commission grow from 13 to 20 members, with a perfect Men/Women balance for each of the eight disciplines.
In line with the election method of the Athletes' Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which elects its members at each Olympic Games, elections of the two representatives from each discipline will take place every four years at the UCI World Championships of the relevant discipline. The mission of the UCI Athletes' Commission is to:
According to the Commission's terms of reference, the President of the UCI Athletes' Commission is elected by his/her peers and is co-opted onto the UCI Management Committee, the executive body of the Federation which operates under the authority of the Congress. In addition, one representative on the Athletes' Commission from each discipline automatically becomes a member of the Commission of his/her discipline, and therefore represents the athletes on that Commission.
The renewal of the UCI Athletes' Commission, with wider representation of disciplines, comes a year after the Commission was overhauled - one of the key commitments of Brian Cookson, since taking up the UCI Presidency in 2013.