National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran has issued a statement clarifying an adjustment to the composition of its Athletes’ Commission following the third edition of the commission’s elections.
Iran NOC; Tehran: the election was held on 19 December 2025, resulting
in the selection of 15 athlete representatives. Subsequent reviews of the final
composition, however, identified an unintentional calculation error in the
application of the Athletes’ Commission Regulations. Under Article 4 (Clause 2)
of the regulations, a maximum of three athletes may represent federations whose
athletes have competed and won medals at least one of the last three Olympic
Games (Summer or Winter). All other Olympic and non-Olympic federations are
entitled to only one representative on the commission.
Based on this provision, sports such as Wrestling, Taekwondo, Weightlifting,
Karate and Shooting which secured medals for Iran between the Rio 2016 and
Paris 2024 Olympic Games — were eligible to have more than one representative,
while other sports were limited to a single seat. While this rule was correctly
applied in the case of kabaddi, it was not fully observed for athletics. As a
result, the election committee corrected the composition in line with the
regulations.
Accordingly, Mr. Hassan Taftian, who received 89 votes, remains a full
member of the Athletes’ Commission, while Ms. Farzaneh Fasihi, with 64 votes,
has been moved to the list of alternate members. In line with Article 4 (Clause
3) of the regulations, at least four of the 15 commission members must be
women. Therefore, the replacement for Fasihi was selected from among female
athletes on the alternate list. Given that kabaddi already has a representative
among the full members, Ms. Zahra Karimi was not eligible for inclusion.
Consequently, Ms. Hanieh Rostamian has been appointed as a full member of the
Athletes’ Commission. Following this adjustment, Farzaneh Fasihi becomes the
first alternate member.
The revised list of members is as follows:
Rahman
Amouzad – Freestyle Wrestling
Amin
Mirzazadeh – Greco-Roman Wrestling
Milad Vaziri
– Archery
Mohammad
Reza Geraei – Greco-Roman Wrestling
Ali Pakdaman
– Fencing
Hassan
Taftian – Athletics
Sajad
Ganjzadeh – Karate
Fazel
Atrachali – Kabaddi
Ariyan
Salimi – Taekwondo
Nahid Kiani
– Taekwondo
Najmeh
Khedmati – Shooting
Amir Mehdi
Zadeh – Karate
Negin Altoni
– Karate
Haniyeh
Rostamiyan (Shooting)
Daniyal
Saveh Shemshaki – Skiing
The co-opted members are as follows:
Farzaneh Fassihi (Athletics)-64 votes
Zahra Karimi (Kabaddi) – 60 votes
Ali Davoudi (Weightlifting) – 47 votes
Mehdi Jelveh Ghaziani (Volleyball) – 47 votes
Mehran Borkhordari (Taekwondo) – 38 votes
The National Olympic Committee reiterated that, under the Athletes’
Commission Regulations, membership is not determined solely by the top 15
vote-getters. The final composition must ensure balanced representation,
including athletes from Olympic medal-winning sports, Olympians, women athletes
and winter sports.