Kirsty Coventry becomes the first female IOC President
Kyiv • UNN
Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe has been elected as the 10th IOC President, succeeding Thomas Bach. She will be the first woman to hold the post, receiving 49 votes in the first round.
Kirsty Coventry has been elected as the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee. She will take office after the transfer of power on June 23, UNN reports with reference to the IOC.
Details
The 41-year-old Zimbabwean was elected by secret ballot from seven candidates at the 144th IOC Session, which took place in Costa Navarino, Greece, on Thursday (March 20), for an eight-year term.
President-elect Coventry will replace outgoing President Thomas Bach, who was first elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2021. She received 49 votes in the first round, exactly as many as needed for a majority of the 97 votes cast.
She will be the first woman and the first African to hold the post of IOC President.
President-elect Coventry will take office after being handed over by President Bach on Olympic Day, June 23. President Bach, who remains in office until that moment, will also step down as an IOC member after the transfer of power and will then take the position of Honorary President.
This is an extraordinary moment. As a nine-year-old girl, I never thought that one day I would stand here and pay tribute to our incredible Movement
"This is not only a great honor, but also a reminder of my obligation to each of you that I will lead this organization with such pride, with values at its core. And I will make sure that you are all very, very proud and, hopefully, extremely confident in the decision you made today. Now we have work to do together. This race was incredible, and it made us better, made us a stronger Movement".
The President-elect will oversee the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina 2026, which will be her first Olympics, with less than 11 months to go until the opening ceremony.
President Bach said of the election of his successor: "Congratulations to Kirsty Coventry on being elected as the 10th President of the IOC. I warmly welcome the decision of the IOC members and look forward to a lasting cooperation, especially during the transition period. There is no doubt that the future of our Olympic movement is bright and that the values we uphold will continue to guide us in the years to come".
Let's add
The newly elected head of the International Olympic Committee Kirsty Coventry is the Minister of Sports of Zimbabwe.
She has won two Olympic gold medals in swimming competitions - in 2004 in Athens and in 2008 in Beijing. Coventry has also won three World Swimming Championships and four World Short Course Championships.
It should be noted that in 2023, Coventry supported Thomas Bach's position regarding the admission of Russians and Belarusians in a neutral status to competitions, in particular, to the 2024 Games in Paris.
"In the end, our Olympic values imply openness to everyone, so I agree with this first step. We'll see how it works," Coventry said in a comment for Inside The Games.
