Rome,18th December Doctor Klaus Steinbach has been appointed EOC Chief Medical Officer for the inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2015.
Klaus Steinbach has been a Member of the EOC Executive Committee for two mandates, having been first elected in 2005. The President Association’s Medical and Scientific Commission since 2000, his work was always much appreciated, in particular as medical officer for both winter and summer European Youth Olympic Festivals.
A former Olympian, German, European and World Swimming Champion, Steinbach, who has also lead the German NOC and has been its Chef de Mission for three Olympic Games, qualified as a Doctor in 1983 and went on to specialise in orthopaedics and physical and rehabilitative medicine.
Announcing the appointment EOC President Patrick Hickey pointed out how “the value of Klaus’s experience is three-fold. He is a former athlete, he is a doctor with more than 25 years’ experience and he has been a Chef de Mission at major sports events like the Olympic Games,” adding that “the EOC’s role is to service the needs of our 49 member countries and their athletes and Klaus’s appointment shows how seriously we are taking their welfare at the first ever European Games in Baku.”
Steinbach will pay a first visit to Baku in mid-January where he will meet BEGOC’s Medical Officer Pam Venning, with whom he will have meetings with the Ministry of Health and the other actors involved in ensuring the health of athletes and spectators.
