Olympics: Kendall unhappy after losing IOC post

Barbara Kendall wants International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes' Commission election rules reviewed, after a campaign beset with dirty politicking.

For the past two years, triple Games medallist Kendall has been on the commission, which gives athletes a voice at the IOC, the body which organises the Olympics.

When the votes were counted yesterday, the boardsailor was 11th of 31 athletes who stood, with 1058 votes. Only the top four athletes were elected.

Athletes standing must have competed at Athens in 2004, or in Beijing.

Others to miss out were the likes of Australian swimmer Grant Hackett, ill-fated Chinese hurdler Xiang Liu, and tennis players Belgian Justine Henin and Amelie Mauresmo of France.

Moon Dae-Sung from the Republic of Korea (taekwondo), Alexander Popov of Russia (swimming), Claudia Bokel of Germany (fencing), and Cuban Ruiz-Luaces Yumilka (volleyball) were elected.

The vote left New Zealand without a voice on the IOC for the first time in 112 years.

Kendall told NZPA that Moon and Bokel had lobbied athletes furiously outside the food hall at the Olympic Village, while she had been hundreds of kilometres away competing off Qingdao.

"That was a bit disappointing," she said, saying she was surprised how well she had done under the circumstances.

It was worse for those standing who had competed at Athens but not at Beijing, she said, as they had minimal ability to lobby the athletes.

"Some athletes couldn't even come to the Games, so it is a bit unfair, it's not a level playing field."

She became an IOC member when she replaced Australian swimmer Susie O'Neill on the commission, and had full IOC voting rights.

She would remain chair of the Oceania Athletes' Commission and keep competing, Kendall said.

The election was held over the past 15 days in the Olympic Villages in Beijing, Hong Kong and Qingdao, as well as at football venues outside Beijing.

Both Moon and Bokel were warned by the IOC for breaching rules governing candidate behaviour. Moon got 3220 votes, followed by Popov, with 1903, Bokel with 1836 and Ruiz-Luaces with 1571.

The votes had to be cast for four different athletes from four different sports.

Voting was up from Athens, with 7830 athletes -- 71.6 percent of all eligible voters -- casting a vote.

The record participation was higher than four years ago in Athens, where 54.5 percent of the athletes voted.

After acceptance by the IOC Session, the four elected athletes will become IOC members for eight years.

Former New Zealand IOC member Tay Wilson retired in 2006 after serving from 1988, though he remained an honorary member. That had left Kendall as the New Zealander with the most power on the IOC, which runs the Olympic Games.

The vote was beset by dirty political tricks, with other instances of pre-election indiscretions uncovered at the Games, one by the powerful United States Olympic Committee, which on Monday apologised for offering $50 vouchers to US Olympians in an attempt to get them to vote.

US football player Julie Foudy was one of the athletes standing. The US told a meeting of chefs de mission they had not encouraged athletes to vote for Foudy, just to vote.