NOC Austria President Karl Stoss has been re-elected with no surprise into his third term of office by the General Assembly of the Austrian Olympic Committee on Wednesday evening in Vienna. Peter Mennel is confirmed as the NOC’s Secretary General.

The Austrian Olympic Committee is building on continuity: together with president Karl Stoss, the three vice presidents Elisabeth Max-Theurer, Peter Schröcksnadel and Otto Flum were also reelected for further four years. Also reelected to their positions in the board are Herbert Hübel (soccer federation), Walter Kapounek (hockey federation), Sonja Spendelhofer (athletics federation), Markus Prock (luge), Herbert Houf (sailing), Peter Kleinmann (volleyball), as well as Gerd Prohaska (ASVÖ) and Ulrich Zafoschnig (Union) as internal auditors.

The longtime president of the Austrian Ice Hockey Federation Dieter Kalt, a board member for 20 years, has been elected honorary member.

With ice hockey Vice President Gernot Metterndorfer and Horst Nussbaumer (rowing federation), two new board members were elected. Werner Kuhn (ASKÖ) is a new internal auditor.

Three new sports were introduced to the board as voting members: baseball, karate and climbing.

Karl Koss, 60, from Vorarlberg, the region he had the pleasure to welcome some of the 2015 Winter EYOF events, commented:  “It’s all about improving the circumstances for our top athletes and their coaches. In the long run, we must define our objectives together with all the people in charge. Nowadays you have to plan years ahead to establish your position in the international competition”.

In next week agenda, President Karl Stoss and Secretary General Peter Mennel will address among other topics the evaluation of the feasibility study for a potential bid of Innsbruck for the Winter Games 2026.

In late summer, it should be clear if Austria will decide for a candidature. Secretary General Peter Mennel stated: “The feasibility study will be completed in late May, from then on we’ll be able to have serious discussions. In general, the time for a bid hasn’t been so good for a while as it is now for 2026 – the chances are surely real.”

Mennel also commented the upcoming  sports events: the European Youth Olympic Festival from the 23rd to the 29th of July 2017 in Györ, Hungary, where Austria will send 50 to 60 athletes;

the Winter Games 2018, where “Olympic Team Austria” will have around 105 to 115 athletes. In the upcoming week, the alpine women and biathletes will perform their test events in PyeongChang. Up to now the feedback of the Austrian athletes and coaches has been very positive.

Other key topics addressed were the crowd funding platform “I believe in you” established to helping athletes for PyeongChang, the gradually increasing cooperation among the six Olympia Centers, the Austria House project in PyeongChang funding via sponsoring.