The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is pleased to announce that Katerina Nash (Czech Republic) and Simon Zahner (Switzerland) have been elected to represent cyclo-cross on the UCI Athletes' Commission, after a vote held during the 2017 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships this weekend in Bieles, Luxembourg.
Nash and Zahner were chosen from a field of nine candidates - five men and four women - by athletes participating in the UCI Elite World Championships.
Nash and Zahner obtained 38,6% and 33% of the votes respectively.
The participation rate has been of 82,2%.
Members of the Commission are elected with a four-year mandate running from the UCI Congress in 2017 to the Congress in 2021.
The election comes as part of the renewal of all UCI Commissions in 2017.
This year, the UCI has taken the decision to increase the representation of its various disciplines on the Athletes' Commission by modifying its electoral system.
This new voting system will see the UCI Athletes' Commission grow from 13 to 16 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 objectives of the Commission are:
According to the Commission's terms of reference, the President of the 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 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.