Stefanidi has been proposed by the Hellenic Olympic Committee (HOC), who claim she has "demonstrated extraordinary ethos". 

The 29-year-old won a bronze medal at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships here on Sunday (September 29).

"It is with great joy that we put forward Katerina Stefanidi as candidate for the IOC Athletes' Commission," HOC President Spyros Capralos said.

"Apart from being a great athlete with gold medals in Olympic Games, World and European Championships, she has an excellent character and ethos, while also being extremely popular among her co-athletes, a fact that makes her the best possible candidate for the Athletes' Commission. 

"Taking into consideration that she is an athlete of athletics, the most popular sport in the Olympic Games, her chances of being elected are extremely high, something that will be a great success for Greece as well, because we will this way have a second IOC member. 

"We, at the Hellenic Olympic Committee, will do our utmost to support her effort to get elected."

Stefanidi is also standing for election to the IAAF Athletes' Commission with voting taking place during the World Championships. 

The deadline for applications to put candidates forward for the IOC Athletes' Commission officially closed on September 9. 

A group of four athletes will be elected following a secret ballot at Tokyo 2020.

Any athlete competing at the Olympics in the Japanese capital is eligible to vote.

The four athletes chosen will replace the outgoing members whose terms on the Commission come to an end at the conclusion of Tokyo 2020, and will serve an eight-year term through to Los Angeles 2028.

Those due to leave the Commission are chairperson Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe, Australia's James Tomkins, France's Tony Estanguet and Sweden's Stefan Holm.

Coventry is eligible to stand for re-election as a member because she competed at Rio 2016, but would not automatically be reinstated as chairperson.

Slovakian shooter Danka Barteková's term will also end at Tokyo 2020, but she is eligible to stand for re-election as an active athlete.

India's Abhinav Bindra, Jordanian Nadin Dawani and Egyptian Aya Medany, who were all appointed by the IOC rather than elected, are also due to leave the Commission but could be reappointed.

The IOC appoint members to the Commission to ensure a balance between regions, gender and sports.

Stefanidi won the gold medal at Rio 2016 in controversial circumstances, after double Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva was prevented from competing because of the IAAF ban imposed on Russia following allegations of state-supported doping.

Although she was banned from taking part at Rio 2016, Isinbayeva was still allowed to stand in the elections for the IOC Athletes' Commission. 

She was elected along with German fencer Britta Heidemann, South Korean table tennis player Seug-Min Ryu and Hungarian swimmer Dániel Gyurta.

Other athletes to have declared publicly they are standing for the IOC Athletes' Commission at Tokyo 2020 are Spanish basketball superstar Pau Gasol, Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini and Cypriot sailor Pavlos Kontides.

A full list of candidates is due to be published by the IOC Executive Board in December, following ethics checks on all those proposed by their National Olympic Committees.