The 33-year-old Fourcade is a five-time Olympic biathlon champion finished top in polling with a total of 971 votes.

The 36-year-old Hansdotter, winner of an Olympic gold medal in the slalom at Pyeongchang 2018, got 694 votes.

Swiss ice hockey player Florence Schelling narrowly missed out on a place by finishing third with 619 votes. 

A total of 2,307 athletes voted in the election, 80.5 per cent of the number eligible to take part since polling opened at the Athletes' Villages on January 27.

Due to COVID-19 regulations, both Fourcade and Handotter joined the press conference to announce their election via video-links from their homes in France and Sweden, respectively. 

"I want the athletes to know that their involvement will be represented at the Athletes’ Commission," Fourcade said following his election.

"We have met in the Olympic Villages and you know that you can reach me any time.

"I sincerely believe in the values of sport and in the values of Olympics and I want to carry those with the IOC and contribute to the wellbeing of athletes."

Fourcade, already France's most successful Winter Olympic athlete, with a total of seven Olympic medals, including five gold, two at Sochi 2014 and three at Pyeongchang 2018, had been expected to compete at Beijing 2022 until a surprise retirement announcement in 2020.

This is not his first appointment to a high-profile sports politics role.

In April 2018 he was elected President of the Paris 2024 Athletes' Commission.

Hansdotter retired from skiing in 2019 following a career which also saw her win five medals at the International Ski Federation World Alpine Championships Ski Championships, two silver and a bronze.

"I am really honoured to be elected," she said.

"I am looking forward to being on the Committee and working hard for the athletes, this moment is really close to my heart it will be super fun to start the work and really do my best with all these questions."

The decision to elect Fourcade and Hansdotter for eight-year terms is due to be formally ratified at the IOC Session on Saturday (February 19). 

The successful candidates are set to be introduced at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday (February 20) where the normal practice is for them to present symbolic gifts to representatives of the volunteer force.

They will replace the outgoing ice hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser of Canada and former biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen of Norway, who had resigned from the Commission in 2016. 

Fourcade's election means that the number of IOC members is set to grow from two to our as the proposal to admit International Cycling Union President David Lappartient is also set to be rubber-stamped, along with former Athletes' Commission vice-chair Danka Barteková and refugee athlete Yiech Pur Biel.

Fourcade and Lappartient will join the 1976 Olympic 110 metres hurdles gold medallist Guy Drut, who has been an IOC member since 1996, and Jean-Christophe Rolland, a gold medallist in the coxless pair at Sydney 2000.

It will mean France has its largest representation on the IOC since 1925, when it had five members. 

Hansdotter, meanwhile, will join Gunilla Lindberg as one of two IOC members from Sweden.

Fourcade and Hansdotter join an IOC Athletes' Commission that has often been criticised for its lack of independence and failure to represent properly the voters who elected them. 

The Commission's chair Emma Terho defended its role today. 

"The role of the Commission is more important than ever," she said.

"We have been engaging with the athletes throughout the election."

There had been 16 candidates from 16 countries from six different sports - a record for the Winter Olympics. 

The full results can be read here.