Denis Oswald re-elected to International Olympic Committee Executive Board

Picture: CIES Director, Professor Denis Oswald

At the recent International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Lima, International Centre for Sport Studies (CIES) Director, Prof. Denis Oswald, was re-elected to the Executive Board of the organisation which is also known as the “Olympic government”. Denis Oswald, who has been a member of the IOC since 1991, was already a member of the Executive Board between 2000 and 2012 as President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF). During this first mandate, he was also Chair of the Coordination Commission for both the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004 and London in 2012.

Denis Oswald (70) was born in Neuchâtel, where he completed his university studies before preparing his doctorate at the University of Zurich and Cambridge. After having passed his bar exam in 1973, he began work in a law firm in Neuchâtel, which he later took over and ran under his own name. In parallel to this, he continued writing his doctorate, which he defended in 1977. He has, therefore, assiduously pursued his studies, his profession and the practice of sport, which has always occupied an extremely important place in his life. It is in the field of rowing that he has been particularly successful; he was three times national junior champion and thirteen times national champion in the elite, including five times in the single scull, the individual boat. From 1967 to 1976, he was a member of the national team and participated in the 1968 Olympic Games (bronze medal), Munich 1972 (8th place, diploma) and Montreal 1976 (8th place, diploma) where he ended his rowing career. In 1977 he would became Secretary General of FISA, and then, in 1989 President, which was a position he held until July 2014.

As an athlete and jurist, he has always had a strong interest in sports law. He has conducted extensive research, published articles and lectured extensively. Accordingly, in 2000 he was invited to teach sports law at the University of Neuchâtel. This was later developed, with the help of CIES and FIFA, by the University when they established a full chair in sports law and he was given responsibility for it.

At the creation of the CIES, the founders invited him to become a member of the Board of Trustees, and in 2000 to became the CIES Director (part-time), with a strong involvement in the FIFA Master MA in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport course, and for which he now chairs the Scientific Committee.

The entire CIES and FIFA Master course team congratulates Denis Oswald on his re-election to the IOC Executive Board and we extend our best wishes for the coming years - which promise to be both exciting and challenging for him.