Beijing, China – Today, the members of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) present in Beijing, China, for the 2005 IPC General Assembly (GA) elected a new Governing Board. This was the largest GA to date, with more than 300 participants from 90 National Paralympic Committees, five Regions, four IOSDs (International Organizations for the Disabled) and 24 Sports.

Sir Philip Craven (Great Britain) was re-elected President with 103 votes out of 123 possible for a four year term. Miguel Sagarra (Spain) was elected Vice-President by a majority of 70 votes.

The following people were elected Member at Large:

Mr. Masoud Ashrafi, Iran
Mr. Jose Luis Campo, Argentina
Ms. Ann Cody, USA
Mr. Alan Dickson, Great Britain
Mr. Greg Hartung, Australia
Mr. Patrick Jarvis, Canada
Mr. Karl Vilhelm Nielsen, Denamark
Dr. Nabil Salem, Egypt
Mr. Zainal Abu Zarin, Malaysia
Mr. Shen Zhifei, China

The IPC Chief Executive Officer Xavier Gonzalez and the Chairperson of the IPC Athletes’ Council, Ljiliana Ljubisic, are also ex-officio members of the IPC Governing Board.

The New IPC Governing Board following today’s elections.

During today’s session, six people received the Paralympic Order, the highest recognition presented by the IPC. The award honours those members of the Paralympic Family who have made an outstanding or long-lasting contribution to the Paralympic Movement and/or to the overall success of the Paralympic Games. The recipients present in Beijing were: Chris Cohen, Leen Coudenys, Ian Harrison, Enrique Perez, Deng Pufang, Dr. Youn Dai Whang.

At the Closing Dinner, the 2005 Paralympic Awards Ceremony was held. The Paralympic Sport Awards 2005 were awarded in five categories, based on performance at the ATHENS 2004 Paralympic Games:

Best Male Athlete: Clodoaldo Silva (BRA), Swimming
Best Female Athlete: Mayumi Narita (JPN), Swimming
Best Team Performance: Canadian Men’s Wheelchair Basketball Team
Best Games Debut: Chui Yee Yu (HGK), Wheelchair Fencing
Best Official: Jonquil Solt (GBR), Equestrian

The Paralympic Media Awards 2005 honour members of the media who presented the highest quality and most dynamic coverage of the ATHENS 2004 Paralympic Games, in four categories:

Broadcast: BBC (GBR)
Written (Print): Daily Telegraph (GBR)
Written (Online): Yahoo! Japan (JPN)
Photo: Lieven Coudenys (BEL)

The Paralympic Scientific Award 2005 recognized one outstanding contributor (academic or scientific) for research in the field of sport for persons with a disability. The winner of the 2005 Paralympic Scientific Award was: Dr. Colin Higgs (CAN).

The 2005 Paralympic Awards were made possible by the generous contribution of Charity Sport.

For further information, please contact Miriam Wilkens, IPC Media and Communication Director on +86-1343-910-2298 or miriam.wilkens@paralympic.org or http://www.paralympic.org/.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is the international governing body of sports for athletes with a disability. It supervises and co-ordinates the Paralympic Summer and Winter Games and other multi-disability competitions, of which the most important are World and Regional Championships. The IPC also supports the recruitment and development of athletes at a local, national and international level across all performance levels.