The arrival of Spain's Pau Gasol in sport's most prestigious club has taken the contest to a new level.

The dual basketball silver medallist - who, at 2.15 metres, may well be the tallest IOC member in the organisation’s storied, more than century-long history - has quite simply blown the opposition away.

On the day that this year's readings were taken, January 1, the two-time National Basketball Association (NBA) title-winner had some 7.2 million followers on the social media platform.

That is approximately equivalent to the population of the South American country Paraguay, or the city of Baghdad.

Number two on the new list is another new IOC member, Federica Pellegrini, the Italian freestyle swimmer with two Olympic medals to her name - first silver at Athens 2004 then gold at Beijing 2008.

The 33-year-old trails far behind her fellow IOC Athletes' Commission member, though, with just under 736,000 followers. That is about the same as the population of Seattle.

The arrival of these two newcomers has enabled Europe to assert its dominance in the annual race, taking over from the Middle East, which occupied the top two positions last time.

The champion for the past three years - Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar - now finds himself relegated abruptly to fourth place.

In addition to the two Europeans, Sheikh Tamim has been overhauled by Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States, who was second in last year’s race.

Her Twitter following has now risen to some 426,000, nearly 25,000 above Sheikh Tamim’s mark.

With a FIFA World Cup to look forward to in his small country this year, it seems possible that the Qatari will be able to revive his fortunes.

However, history shows how hard it is in this Twitter chart to bounce back.

Indeed, Emma Terho, Finnish chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, is the only member of last year’s top 40 to improve her place in the rankings this time.

Not since the days of Sepp Blatter with his two-to-three million Twitter followers, has the IOC been able to claim a member in the social media platform’s "million club".

So popular is the ex-Los Angeles Laker Gasol’s account that he would have put even the former FIFA President in the shade in this contest.

There are seven new entries in the top 40 in all: Gasol, Pellegrini, plus Japan's Yuki Ota, Kenyan Humphrey Kayange, Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen fromNorway, Maja Martyna Włoszczowska of Poland and Paul Tergat, another Kenyan.

They replace: Tony Estanguet of France, who has an Olympic and Paralympic Games to organise; Stefan Holm of Sweden; Kikkan Randall of the United States; Danka Barteková of Slovakia; James Tomkins of Australia; Anita DeFrantz of the United States; and Narinder Dhruv Batra of India.

Barteková could re-enter the classification in 2022, since she is poised to return to the IOC next month at the body’s Session in Beijing.

The new list comprises 22 men and 18 women.

Europe leads the way in quantity as well as followers with 15 members in the new top 40; Africa has six; South and Central America and the Caribbean seven; Asia five; the Middle East four; North America two, both Canadians; and Australasia one, a New Zealander.

The changes mean that neither the United States nor Australia has a representative on the top 40 list.

The following countries each have two representatives: Finland, Italy, Kenya and Spain.