Marcus Daniell named as candidate for IOC Athletes Commission elections

ITF Press Release 30 November 2023

Following the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board on 29 November, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is delighted to confirm that professional tennis player Marcus Daniell (NZL) has been nominated by the New Zealand National Olympic Committee as a candidate in the upcoming IOC Athletes Commission elections.

The IOC Athletes Commission elections will take place during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Daniell, born 9 November 1989, reached a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 34 on 29 January 2018. He played 17 Davis Cup ties for New Zealand between 2010 and 2021, winning 13 of the 19 matches he contested and is second on the all-time list for most Davis Cup doubles matches won by a New Zealander. Davis Cup is the largest annual international team competition in sports and part of the Olympic Qualification Pathway for men (alongside Billie Jean King Cup for women).

Daniell won a bronze medal alongside Michael Venus in the men’s doubles at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Tennis Event, defeating Americans Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren in the bronze medal match to win New Zealand’s first Olympic medal in tennis. Daniell hoped that the pair’s special achievement would have an impact at home and inspire young players from New Zealand to “dream big”.

After receiving his medal, Daniell said: "We've made a little bit of history today and I really hope it's inspiring to the younger generation in New Zealand and gets people to pick up some tennis rackets and see [tennis] as a high-performance sport, as an Olympic sport."

Daniell is a philanthropist and an advocate for effective altruism through his work as the founder of High Impact Athletes and as a member of Giving What We Can.