Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh set to become International Olympic Committee member
By Aimee Lewis, CNN
(CNN) — Michelle Yeoh could soon become a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after the Oscar winner was among eight candidates nominated by the organization’s executive board.
Her proposed membership is set to be ratified at an IOC session in Mumbai, India, next month.
In March, Yeoh won best actress at the 95th Academy Awards for her acclaimed performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” becoming the first woman of Asian descent to win the award. She was also the first Malaysian-born performer to be honored with a best actress Oscar.
Yeoh, 61, is a former Malaysian junior squash champion and joins Israel’s first Olympic medallist Yael Arad, Hungarian businessman Balázs Furjes, Peruvian politician and former Olympian Cecilia Roxana Tait Villacorta and German sports entrepreneur Michael Mronz as the five proposed individual members.
In a statement, IOC President Thomas Bach said: “These candidates bring added value to the work of the IOC because of their experience and diverse expertise in different walks of life.
“What they all have in common is their love of sport and their strong belief in the Olympic values and what the IOC stands for.”
Movie credits for Yeoh, who is widely considered an icon of martial arts cinema, also include Marvel Studio’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021), “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018), “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” (2008), “Memoirs Of A Geisha” (2005) and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000).
She made her name in Hong Kong action movies of the 1980s and 90s, before her breakthrough international role in 1997 opposite Pierce Brosnan in the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies.”
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Simone McCarthy contributed to reporting.
