The mandate of the IHF Interim Athletes’ Commission appointed by the IHF Council in September 2021 ended with the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, held in Paris from 26 July 2024 to 11 August 2024. Therefore, an election took place during the mentioned event in order to renew the composition of the Athletes’ Commission for the 2024-2028 period.

Six candidatorial submissions have been approved by the IHF Executive Committee before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the participating athletes in the event being able to take part in the paper ballot voting during the preliminary round of the Men’s and Women’s Olympic Handball Tournaments.

The Election Commission, composed of IHF Executive Committee Member Ms Narcisa Lecusanu, IHF Vice-President Africa Mr Mansourou Aremou and IHF Representative Asia Mr Bader Al-Theyab, undertook the election process as well as the counting of the votes cast. 406 athletes were eligible to vote and 327 ballot papers were cast, with 326 of them valid.

The candidates for the IHF Athletes’ Commission for the 2024-2028 period received the following number of votes:

1. Gonzalo PEREZ DE VARGAS MORENO (ESP) 203 votes
2. Dika MEM (FRA) 178 votes
3. Ana GROS (SLO) 173 votes
4. Xenia SMITS (GER) 165 votes
5. Pedro MARTINEZ CAMI (ARG) 69 votes
5. Mohammad SANAD (EGY) 69 votes

According to Article 4.5.1 of the Regulations for IHF Athletes’ Commission, the largest number of votes cast were obtained by the candidate Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas Moreno, representing Spain. Furthermore, in view of Article 3.1 of the Regulations for IHF Athletes’ Commission, according to which the Athletes’ Commission is composed of five members, and due to the tied result between Pedro Martinez Cami and Mohammad Sanad, the Election Commission proposed to confirm both of them as elected members. However, Pedro Martinez Cami withdrew his candidature on 4 August 2024.



By decision of 15 August 2024, the IHF Council confirmed the election result of the IHF Athletes’ Commission, according to Article 4.4.2 of the Regulations for IHF Athletes’ Commission, for the following four-year term 2024-2028:

As per Article 16.1.2 of the IHF Statutes and Article 5.1 of the Regulations for IHF Athletes’ Commission, Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas Moreno has been provisionally approved by the IHF Council as Chairman of the IHF Athletes’ Commission until the 2025 Ordinary IHF Congress which shall give its definite confirmation.