Cop, Boraska, Stojic proposed for IOC Athletes’ Commission

Three rowers – Iztok Cop, Igor Boraska and Nikola Stojic – will be aiming for election to the IOC Athletes’ Commission at next year’s Beijing Olympics.

Proposed by their respective National Olympic Committees the three athletes will be aiming for election in a vote by the athletes at the Beijing Olympic Village at the end of next year’s Olympic Games.

Slovenia’s Iztok Cop is the 2000 Olympic Champion in the men’s double and silver medallist for 2004. He has been winning international medals for his country ever since it gained independence in the early 1990s and this has made him the most accomplished Slovenian athlete. At this year’s World Rowing Championships, Cop, with his longtime partner Luka Spik, won the men’s double sculls, qualifying the boat for the Beijing Olympics. There is little doubt the duo will be Slovenia’s chosen double for Beijing.

Cop is outspoken in his belief that rowing is being left behind in the way sport is going in the world in terms of the mounting professionalism and the need to make it more accessible and favourable for spectators.

Igor Boraska of Croatia has represented his country at both the summer and winter Olympics – rowing in summer and the bobsled in winter. He has taken breaks from his very successful rowing career to focus on his role in local government politics. Boraska has been to three summer Olympics and has a bronze medal from the men’s eight in 2000.

Boraska serves on FISA’s Athletes’ Commission and, although rowing at this year’s World Rowing Championships (in the men’s four), Boraska has not yet qualified as a rower for the Beijing Olympics.

Serbia became its own country in 2006 and Nikola Stojic was the first Serbian to win an international rowing medal. Stepping into the men’s coxed pair at the eleventh hour to fill in for an injured team mate, Stojic finished first. This year, with team mate Goran Jagar, the duo finished sixth in the men’s pair and thus qualifying the boat for the Beijing Olympics. If Stojic remains in this boat he will be going to his third Olympics and for the third time under a new country.

The athletes will have the opportunity to campaign at the Beijing Olympic Village during the Olympic Games next year. Strict campaigning criteria must be followed.