Karl Stoss has been elected president of the Austrian Olympic Committee. Stoss succeeds Leo Wallner, who resigned last month in the wake of a series of financial scandals. The 52-year-old Stoss, general director at Casinos Austria and managing director at Austrian Lotteries, was elected to a four-year term Thursday during the committee's extraordinary general meeting. Stoss, who is the AOC's 11th president, will present a new board early December. The 73-year-old Wallner ran the organization for 19 years, making him Austria's longest-serving national Olympic committee president. Sports Minister Norbert Darabos had asked for a "generation change" at the head of the Vienna-based committee last month. The committee was recently hit by a financial scandal surrounding Salzburg's failed bid for the 2014 Winter Games. AOC general secretary Heinz Jungwirth also stepped down earlier this year. Austrian prosecutors have been investigating questionable cash transactions tied to the bid. Wallner allegedly neglected to properly supervise the situation, in which a lobbyist was paid more than ?1 million ($1.5 million). Salzburg lost the bid to host the 2014 Olympics to Sochi, Russia, two years ago. Austria staged the 1964 and '76 Winter Games in Innsbruck, which is also hosting next year's inaugural Winter Youth Olympics.
