Els van Breda Vriesman-Commandeur (, 18 March 1941) is a Dutch sports administrator and jurist. Els Commandeur was born in 1941 in the Dutch city of

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

. She studied law and was a field hockey player, achieving a position in the Dutch national youth team. She has been a sports administrator since the early 1980s, best known for her positions in field hockey. She was a board member of the Royal Dutch Hockey Association (the Dutch governing body of field hockey) for 14 years (until 1994), and was a representative to the

International Hockey Federation The Fédération Internationale de Hockey (English: International Hockey Federation), commonly known by the acronym and initialism, acronym FIH, is the international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey. Its headquarters are i ...

. Between 1989 and 1993 she was also board member of the Dutch Olympic Committee. In 1987 she was appointed as the technical delegate for the female field hockey tournament at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

in Seoul. She was chair of the technical commission of the Federation, and was from 1994 its secretary-general. In 2001 she was elected as president of the Federation, with an agenda for renewal of the sport. As such, she was also a representative in the International Olympic Committee and member of various IOC committees. After she lost her re-election in 2008 from

Leandro Negre Leandro may refer to: * Leandro (given name), a male name, including a list of people with the name * ''Ero e Leandro'', a 1707 cantata by George Frideric Handel * San Leandro, California * San Leandro Creek See also *Leandra (disambiguation) Lean ...

, she also resigned from those positions. In 2010 van Breda Vriesman was appointed as Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for her work as volunteer for field hockey and sports.

Personal life

Van Breda Vriesman is married has three children. Besides field hockey, she has also cycled and played golf.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breda Vriesman, Els van International Hockey Federation Dutch female field hockey players Dutch sports executives and administrators International Olympic Committee members 1941 births Living people Women sports executives and administrators