Dominica: Athlete Thea LaFond Gadson has been elected as a member of World Athletics Athletes’ Commission 2025-2029. The elections for the athletes’ commission took place during the World Athletics Championships 2025, held in Tokyo.
The six newly elected or re-elected members of the 2025-2029 Athletes’ Commission are:
- Lisanne de Witte from Netherlands (re-elected with 1566 votes)
- Gia Trevisan from Italy (newly elected with 1456 votes)
- Andreas Almgren from Sweden (newly elected with 1428 votes)
- Thea LaFond from Dominica (newly elected with 1293 votes)
- Anna Ryzhykova from Ukraine (re-elected with 1244 votes)
- Lia Apostolovski from Slovenia (newly elected with 1201 votes)
These six newly elected or re-elected members will join the athletes who were elected and appointed in 2023 to complete the commission:
- Dame Valerie Adams from New Zealand
- Renaud Lavillenie from France
- Aisha Praught-Leer from Jamaica
- Diego Garcia Carrera from Spain
- Jasmine Todd from USA
- Adam Gemili from Great Britain
Notably, all athletes accredited for the World Championships in Tokyo had the right to vote in the elections, that were held before and during the competition from Sept 08 to 20, 2025.
The 2025 elections recorded 95.5% participation. The athletes have to go through an eligibility criterion to become a member of the athletes’ commission.
The athletes needed to have competed in at least one of the past two editions of the World Championships or in the most recently held Olympic Games or must be a competitor at the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
However, elections held this year introduced an innovation in voting. For the first time, the athletes could have vote either in person or online. Also, they have extended voting period which was designed to give athletes who arrived later or departed earlier with maximum opportunities to cast their votes.
The six seats that were available for elections in 2025 were for Deputy Chair position. With these elections, importance of athletes to decision-making within World Athletics was recognised and embedded into the World Athletics structures with the governance and integrity reforms, approved in December 2016.
Since 2019, the Chairperson and one other member of the Athletes’ Commission, as one man and one woman, have been the full voting members of the World Athletics Council.
Considering this, Athletes’ Commission Chair – Dame Valerie Adams said that she is proud to see the incredible turnout in voting for the Athletes’ Commission election with more than 2000 athletes participated to vote for their representatives this year.
Adams explained about the recent changes that were championed by the Athletes’ Commission and implemented by the World Athletics regarding the placement of the voting station. The officials extended the voting period and a hybrid solution to allow athletes to vote more flexibly during the World Championships that have proven to be highly effective.
They are truly grateful for the support they have received from the team on the ground that contributed to the seamless delivery of the historic voting.