Members Appointed for Adaptive Rowing Commission

The first four members have been appointed to the newly created Adaptive Rowing Commission by the FISA Council. They are to join commission chairperson José Nunes of Portugal who was elected at the FISA Congress last August. Two additional members, to be nominated by the International Paralmypic Committee (IPC) next year will complete the commission.

Adaptive rowing is rowing, sculling or crew for people with disabilities as well as for those with special needs. The role of the Commission, which was created earlier this year, is to oversee all areas of adaptive rowing as well as to serve as a voice within FISA for all adaptive rowers.

The new Commission members are: Shirley Stokes of Australia, Vassilis Lykomitros of Greece, Ho Kim Fai of Hong Kong China and Isabel Bohn of the United States. They have been appointed as members for the initial year of the Commission after which a full mandate of four years will be decided.

Each new member is closely linked with adaptive rowing and will bring specific experience to the young commission. Shirley Stokes is a board member of Rowing Australia and serves as Development Director. As well as being an active masters rower she also produced the first adaptive rowing policy to be adopted by the Rowing Australia Council in June 2001.

Vassilis Lykomitros is an orthopeadic surgeon who specializes in spinal injuries. A long-time Greek national rowing team member, Lkyomitros is now also acting as competition manager for rowing for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Two-time Olympic competitor (and in two different sports – rowing and canoeing!) Ho Kim Fai is the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Sports Association for the Mentally Handicapped and the National Director for Special Olympics Hong Kong. She represented Hong Kong in eight World Rowing Championships and also holds coaching qualifications in rowing, canoeing and swimming/lifesaving.

Isabel Bohn is Chair of the Adaptive Committee for US Rowing as well as Program Administrator for the Philadelphia Rowing Program for the disabled. Bohn has 20 years experience in adaptive rowing in both singles and doubles.

The FISA Adaptive Rowing Commission aims to have rowing featured on the programme of the 2008 Paralympics and to create partnerships and development programmes with the IPC.

“FISA will join efforts with the IPC and the IOSD’s for better adaptive rowing around the world” says Commission chairman José Nunes, adding “for global aims, a global commission.”