By Graham Thomas and Jungin Bae
Previous members Daniel Michel of Australia and Argentina’s Stefania Ferrando are among six athletes who have been elected to a new six-member Athletes’ Committee within World Boccia.
The new group includes representatives from six different countries, who are now set to play a greater role in shaping the future of the sport.
The election took place during the Seoul 2026 World Boccia Championships, where more than three-quarters of the athletes competing took part in the vote.
The new committee is made up of André Ramos of Portugal, Daniel Michel of Australia, Nicholas Taylor of the USA, Sally Kidson of Great Britain, Stefania Ferrando of Argentina and Tasneem Goda of Egypt.
The line-up is evenly split between men and women, reflecting the structure set out for the committee, with three members identifying as male and three as female.
Michel and Ferrando are the only two returning members, having previously served on the Athletes’ Committee and secured the backing of their fellow competitors for another term.
They are joined by four new representatives in Ramos, Taylor, Kidson and Goda, all of whom bring their own international competition experience and knowledge of the sport to the committee.
The election is particularly significant because the Athletes’ Committee is gaining an important new link to the governing structure of World Boccia.
Following recent amendments to World Boccia’s Articles of Association, an Athlete Representative will now be appointed to the World Boccia Board.
That representative will be selected by the six members of the newly elected Athletes’ Committee, giving the athletes a direct voice at the highest level of the organisation.
The committee’s central mission is to represent and advocate for boccia players and ensure that athletes remain at the heart of decisions affecting the sport.
Its members began serving from the day after the closing ceremony of the Seoul championships and will remain in place until the closing ceremony of the next World Boccia Championships in 2030.
The strong turnout at the election underlined the importance athletes place on having their views represented within the sport’s governing structures.
More than 75 per cent of eligible athletes cast their votes, with World Boccia confirming that the election protocol established in its Athletes’ Charter was followed.
The result provides the new committee with a clear mandate as it begins work on behalf of competitors from across the international boccia community.
For the four newcomers, the challenge will be to build on the work already undertaken by Michel and Ferrando while ensuring that the concerns and priorities of athletes from different classifications, countries and backgrounds are heard.
The committee will also have an early responsibility of considerable importance: choosing one of its own members to become the first Athlete Representative under the amended governance arrangements.
World Boccia has welcomed the new committee and said it looks forward to working with its members.
With athletes now guaranteed a route into the organisation’s Board-level decision-making process, the Seoul election marks an important step in giving competitors a stronger influence over the direction of the sport.
