World Baseball Softball Confederation President Riccardo Fraccari sent his congratulations to WBSC Vice President Beatrice Allen, after she was granted the status of IOC Honorary Member after having served as an IOC Member for 14 years.
"On behalf of the entire World Baseball Softball Confederation, allow me to offer you my warmest and most sincere congratulations on being granted the prestigious status of Honorary IOC Member," President Fraccari said in a personal letter. "Your invaluable contributions to the Olympic Movement as an IOC Member for the last 14 years have rightly been recognised. And you have leveraged your influence within the Olympic and African sports movements to help grow the WBSC into an Olympic-standard IF which is worthy of representing our global sport. For that I want to say: thank you."
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter, "Any IOC member ceases to be a member at the end of the calendar year during which he/she reaches the age of 70".
Vice President Allen was born on 8 August 1950. She has been an IOC member since 2006 and her tenure was going to come to an end at the end of this year. During the online IOC Session 136 last Friday (17 July), Allen was made an Honorary IOC Member.
IOC President Thomas Bach commented: "Due to Beatrice's dynamics, exemplary personality and the exceptional work done during her tenure as an IOC Member which the committee will continue to benefit for so many years, it was unanimously agreed for her to be granted the status of IOC Honorary Member based on the exceptional services she rendered to the IOC."
Allen, a WBSC Vice President since October 2017, will be awarded the Honorary Membership and the Olympic Order medal in the IOC Session 137, scheduled for early 2021 in Athens, Greece.
She is also a member of five IOC Commissions - Women in Sport, Olympic Education, Public Affairs and Social Development, Sustainability and Legacy, and Medical and Scientific as well as a member of the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) Education Commission.
The Honorary Member of the Gambia Softball Association has a university degree in International Development and diplomas in gender development and gender project execution. She started her career at the United Nations Development Programme in 1974. She served as the Head of the Gambia Softball Association and has been the Vice President of the Gambia National Olympic Committee since 2009.
