The head of cycling’s governing body has been replaced on a key International Olympic Committee panel as he deals with the fallout from the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.
International Cycling Union President Pat McQuaid said on Wednesday he was too busy to attend all the meetings of the Olympic commission evaluating bids for the 2020 Summer Games.
“It’s quite simple,” McQuaid told The Associated Press. “I have too much going on and I can’t afford to be spending two weeks away from the office in March.”
McQuaid, an IOC member from Ireland, was appointed to the 10-person commission in September 2012, as the representative of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.
He has been replaced by Patrick Baumann, a Swiss IOC member and secretary general of international basketball federation FIBA.
“He couldn’t meet the schedule and we had to find someone else,” IOC vice president Craig Reedie, who chairs the evaluation commission, told the AP. “That’s all. There’s nothing sensitive about it in any way.”
Other members of the 2020 Olympic evaluation commission include IOC members Guy Drut of France, Frank Fredericks of Namibia, Nat Indrapana of Thailand and Claudia Bokel of Germany; El Salvador Olympic committee head Eduardo Palomo; Paralympics representative Andrew Parsons of Brazil; and IOC executive director Gilbert Felli.
It’s not the only position Mr. McQuaid has relinquished in recent months. He lost his spots on the World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee and foundation board at the end of the year and was replaced by Ugur Erdener of Turkey.
