ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti was elected to the International Olympic Committee
during the 118th Session held in Turin, Italy on 10 February 2006 ahead of the XX Olympic
Winter Games.
Ricci Bitti has been President of the International Tennis Federation since 1999 and
was a member of the ITF Board of Directors from 1987-1997. He was President of the
Italian Tennis Federation from 1997-1999 and President of Tennis Europe from 1993-
1999. He is a member of the ASOIF Council, the IOC Marketing Commission and the
WADA Foundation Board and a mediator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“It is a great honour for tennis, and for me personally, to be represented in the
membership of the International Olympic Committee,” commented Ricci Bitti after his
selection. “I recognise that it is also an acknowledgement of the effort that the ITF
made in the 1980s to have tennis reinstated as an Olympic sport. The ITF believes
strongly in Olympic values and, as its representative, I promise to work hard on behalf
of both my sport and the Olympic Movement as a member of the IOC.”
