Dick Fosbury was Elected President of the World Olympians Association during the 4th Elective General Assembly in Lausanne, the Olympic capital on October 5-6th 2007. With his appointment, Dick will serve a four-year term as the head of the worldwide Olympian organization.

 “I am thrilled and honored to be elected to this position with the WOA, “said Dick Fosbury. “I am committed to work hard and with my best efforts to build this association and develop a new strong relationship with the International Olympic Committee and the federations.”

Dick is an American Olympian who revolutionized the high jump using a back-first technique, now known as the Fosbury Flop.  His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve and leap backwards over the bar. Dick won the gold medal and set a new Olympic record at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.  The Fosbury Flop quickly gained popularity, and it is almost exclusively used by modern high jumpers.  To see a video of Dick winning the gold see the following link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id4W6VA0uLc

Dick is an officer with the U.S. Olympians Association.

Also newly elected was the position of Secretary General formerly filled by Dr. Liston Bochette.  The new Secretary General of the World Olympians Association is Anthony Ledgard from Peru who competed in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.

Additional members of the newly elected World Olympians Association Executive Committee are:

Vice President, Charmaine Crooks – CAN 

Vice President, Stefka Kostadinova – BUL 

Treasurer, Joel Bouzou – FRA 

Executive Member, George Andreadis – GRE 

Executive Member, Kieren Perkins – AUS 

Executive Member, El Hadj Amadou Dia Ba – SEN 

Executive Member, Daichi Suzuki – JPN 

I was honored and privileged to attend this event in Lausanne and broke bread with many old and new friends. 

I congratulate my good friends Dick Fosbury and Anthony Ledgard, and extend my congratulations to the additional members of the new executive board.

As always, don't forget to spread the word about the Olympians Communication systems.  Tell your Olympian friends to go to http://www.olympian.org and sign up for their own FREE  [email protected] email address.  Also don't forget to download the new WOA Messenger.  Simply click on "download our software" when you are on the olympian.org web page and follow the instructions. 

Olympian Regards, 

Nick V.

Olympian Insight

WOA Messenger

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