LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Former Moroccan gold medalist Nawal El Moutawakel will lead the IOC panel assessing the four bids for the 2016 Olympics.

The highest ranking woman on the International Olympic Committee, El Moutawakel was appointed Thursday as chair of the 2016 evaluation commission.

The panel will visit the four candidate cities — Chicago; Madrid, Spain; Tokyo; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — in the first quarter of 2009 and compile a report assessing the bids.

The report will be sent to IOC members one month before they vote on the host city on Oct. 2, 2009, at their session in Copenhagen, Denmark.

El Moutawakel also headed the IOC evaluation commission for the 2012 Olympics, which were awarded to London in 2005.

"The team will have the complex and exciting task to evaluate the potential of four highly capable candidate cities," she said in a statement. "Our role will be to assess their technical capabilities in a transparent and neutral way."

El Moutawakel became the first woman from a predominantly Muslim nation to win an Olympic medal when she took gold in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. She was the first Moroccan athlete to win a gold medal.

El Moutawakel was elected to the IOC executive board at the Beijing Olympics, the first woman from a Muslim nation on the rule-making body.

Members of the evaluation commission also include Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli; IOC members Craig Reedie of Britain, C.K Wu of Taiwan, Guy Drut of France and Mounir Sabet of Egypt; athlete representative Alexander Popov of Russia; Els van Breda Vriesman of the Netherlands, representing the international sports federations; and Australian Gregory Hartung of the International Paralympic Committee.

A representative of national Olympic committees and advisers will be appointed later.

"We have a professional team with a wide range of knowledge and experience," IOC president Jacques Rogge said.