Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh voted onto International Olympic Committee

MUMBAI, India – Malaysia Oscar-winning actor Michelle Yeoh was elected to the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday.

The first Asian woman to have one Academy Award – when she won the best actress award earlier this year for ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ – was elected by 67 votes to nine, with one abstention.

She was one of eight new members elected on the final day of the 141st IOC session in Mumbai, India.

When the results were announced, Yeoh stood up and placed her hand on her heart.

She and the other newly elected members then took the Olympic oath.

The 61-year-old, who was joined in Mumbai by her husband Jean Todt, the former president of motorsport’s governing body the FIA, was subsequently presented with an IOC members’ medal by Bach.

Before the vote, Britain’s Princess Anne, chair of the IOC’s member election committee, introduced Yeoh as “a Malaysian junior squash champion.”

“Unfortunately her other skills have taken her away from her sporting life, but she has had a very fulfilling career and a keen interest in sport during that time.”

Yeoh’s breakthrough in Hollywood came when she was cast in the 1997 Bond film ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ opposite Pierce Brosnan, and she made a name for herself in martial arts films including ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’.

She was chosen on Tuesday alongside Israel’s first Olympic medalist Yael Arad; Hungarian businessman and sports director Balazs Furjes; Cecilia Tait, a former Olympic medalist and politician from Peru; and German sports entrepreneur Michael Mronz.

All five had been proposed as individual members by the IOC Executive Board earlier in September.

Sweden’s Petra Soerling, head of the International Table Tennis Federation, and South Korea’s Kim Jae-youl, president of the International Skating Union, were also chosen for their roles in international sports federations.

Mehrez Boussayene, president of the Tunisian Olympic Committee, was also ex officio elected member.

“These candidates add value to the work of the IOC because of their experience and diverse expertise in different walks of life,” Bach said when the eight were introduced in September.