The International Table Tennis Federation announced Thursday that China's Liu Shiwen and England's Paul Drinkhall have been appointed co-chairs of the Athletes' Commission following a vote at the commission's first meeting.

All 10 members of the newly elected commission took part in the meeting after the Athletes' Commission election earlier this month.

Liu, who previously served as co-chair of the commission, was reappointed to the role, while Drinkhall will serve for the first time. Both will represent athletes on the ITTF Executive Board.

Liu Shiwen attends the ITTF Summit during the 2025 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals in Doha, Qatar. (Photo courtesy of ITTF)

Liu was part of China's gold medal-winning team at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and claimed mixed doubles silver at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She also won the women's singles title at the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships and captured a record five Women's World Cup titles.

Drinkhall, a three-time Olympian, competed at London 2012 in addition to the Rio and Tokyo Games. He won Commonwealth Games men's doubles gold in 2018 and 2022, and became the first English player to claim two singles titles on the ITTF World Tour, winning the Spanish Open in 2014 and the Serbia Open in 2019.