Marion Rodewald, the retired long time team captain of the German women's national team, Olympic gold medalist in Athens 2004, and member of the Active Athletes Committee of the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB), was voted onto the Athletes Commission of the European Olympic Committee last Saturday in Moscow.

The hockey player from Cologne thus follows fencer Claudia Bokel, who chaired the commission between 2005 and 2009 and was voted onto the IOC Athletes Commission last year.

With the third most votes, the Olympic champion of 2004 was voted onto the commission by the congregation of European athletes representatives. Together with her nine colleagues, among others from Italy, Croatia, Russia and Denmark, she will be active over the next four years for the European athletes: continuing the work of the previous commission, adressing new issues.

On site in Moscow, the exchange with athletes of the other European NOCs on all topics relevant to high performance sports was important and interesting. Apart from presentations on Vancouver, London and Sochi, an animated discussion with the WADA representative about the World Anti Doping Code and the much critizised ADAMS System was essential.

„The athletes and their representatives discuss very similar topics and issues in their NOCs as we do in Germany. An exchange is thus immensely important, to potentially find solutions together, for example when it comes to the implementation of the ADAMS and its simplification,“ says Rodewald, „that is an area that needs to be worked on in a sustainable manner.“

Source: DHB / DOSB