Olympics-Morocco's El Moutawakel wins senior IOC post
BEIJING, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The IOC has elected Moroccan Olympic gold medallist Nawal El Moutawakel to its powerful executive board, the first Muslim woman to hold such a position.
El Moutawakel won her seat unopposed on Thursday after Puerto Rican Richard Carrion and Britain's Craig Reedie withdrew from running against her to allow one woman on the IOC executive Board. She had 85 votes in favour and 12 against from 97 valid votes.
IOC Vice President Gunilla Lindberg's term ended on Wednesday and the board would have no woman members had El Moutawakel not been elected. The 15-member board is responsible for setting the Olympic agenda.
The IOC said in 1996 it would aim for a 20 percent share of women in its overall membership but is still way off that target with only 16 women out of 110 members.
The U.S-educated El Moutawakel, who won Olympic gold in the 400 metres hurdles in 1984, joined the IOC in 1998, and has been a member of various commissions.
She previously held various other international sports positions including membership of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) executive bureau. (Editing by Keith Weir) (For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)
