With the objective being to allow players the chance to express their views, the ITTF Athletes Commission was formed by the late Ichiro Ogimura during his time as President of the International Tennis Federation over two decades ago.
The 2018 elections will be the biggest yet with 19 candidates under consideration for election and two candidates being considered for appointment only to the ITTF Athletes Commission.
Appointed as IOC Athletes Commission member in August 2016, Athens 2004 Olympic gold medallist Mr Ryu Seungmin is automatically elected to the ITTF Athletes Commission and will be joined by five further members from the list below:
- Dana Cechova – Czech Republic
- Galia Dvorak – Spain
- Matilda Ekholm – Sweden
- Robert Gardos – Austria
- Sarah Hanffou – Cameroon
- Matthew Hetherington – New Zealand
- El-Sayed Lashin – Egypt
- Marcos Madrid – Mexico
- Alberto Mino – Ecuador
- Afshin Noroozi – Iran
- Eva Odorova – Slovakia
- Zoran Primorac – Croatia
- Jean-Michel Saive – Belgium
- Kinga Stefanska – Poland
- Melissa Tapper – Australia
- Segun Toriola – Nigeria
- Krisztina Toth – Hungary
- Wang Liqin – China
- Yu Kwok See – Hong Kong
- Claude Bergeret – France
- Jasna Rather – USA
Voting will take place on Sunday 29th April, Monday 30th April and Wednesday 2nd May from the hours of 10.00am to 17.00pm.
The call for para-athlete elections will take place in July before two additional members, one wheelchair athlete and one standing athlete, will be elected to the ITTF Athletes Commission in October at the 2018 World Para Table Tennis Championships in Lasko, Slovenia.