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On 19 August in Beijing (China), double Olympic 1,500m champion Sebastian Coe was elected as the new President of the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF). Exactly 34 years to the day from when he broke the world mile record, the former British athlete won the vote to head the world governing body for athletics. IOC Member Sergey Bubka was named Vice-President.Coe, who was Chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, is the sixth president of the IAAF in its 103-year history. Upon his election, he said: “I think for most of us in this room we would conclude that the births of our children are big moments in our lives and probably the biggest. But I have to say that the opportunity to work with all of you and shape the future of our sport is probably the second biggest and momentous decision in my life.”Belgian badminton player Yuhan Tan is the new Chair of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Athletes’ Commission. The 28-year-old has been selected by fellow Commission members to lead the players’ representative body and will replace outgoing Commission Chair Emma Mason on the BWF Council.Tan, who competed at the Olympic Games London 2012, has been a member of the Athletes’ Commission for two years and will have Koen Ridder of the Netherlands as his Vice Chair.In his new duties, Tan will be a full voting member of the BWF Council and will be responsible for advising the Council on matters relevant to athletes. He is halfway through his four-year term on the Commission and will serve two years as Chair until his term ends in 2017.The Commission was established in 2008 to represent the views of athletes within the BWF Council.The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) has announced that the “largest beach volleyball tournament” record was broken on the beaches of Scheveningen near The Hague (Netherlands) on 27 June. A total of 2,355 players took part simultaneously, beating the previous record of 1,610 set in Canada in 2014. Among those present were numerous personalities, including FIVB President Ary S. Graça F°. The tournament was played on 276 courts spread out over one kilometre of beach in Scheveningen. The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships took place in the Netherlands from 26 June to 5 July, with 48 men’s teams and 48 women’s teams participating.The World Rowing Federation (FISA) has announced that the 2015 Thomas Keller Medal has been awarded to Slovenia’s Iztok Cop (above). Cop spent more than two decades at the top of his sport, winning the most ever rowing medals for Slovenia. He participated in six consecutive editions of the Olympic Games (from 1992 to 2012) and won four medals, including a gold at Sydney 2000 (double skulls). The award was presented to Cop by Dominik Keller, son of former FISA President Thomas Keller, at a dinner in Lucerne (Switzerland) on 11 July.Above IOC President Thomas Bach met newly elected IAAF President Sebastian Coe in Beijing after the IAAF World ChampionshipsLeft Belgium’s Yuhan Tan will replace Emma Mason as Commission Chair on the BWF Council18 OLYMPIC REVIEW