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Kirsty Coventry has been elected the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). She has emerged as the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest position in the world of sports. Hers was a stunning first-round win in the seven-candidate contest after voting by 97 IOC members. “It is a signal that we are truly global,” the Zimbabwe Sports Minister and two-time Olympic Swimming Gold Medalist shared. Kirsty gets an eight-year mandate into 2033, aged just 41 — youthful by the historical standards of the IOC.
This time, Greece Olympics IOC Election remained the most open and hard-to-call IOC presidential election in decades with Coventry expected to lead the first round short of an absolute majority. Though several rounds of votes were widely predicted, she got the exact majority of 49 needed.
Coventry’s win also was a victory for outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach, who has long been seen as promoting her as his successor. He did not use his right to vote. “I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you have taken,” Coventry said in her acceptance speech. “Now we have got some work together.”
Walking to the podium, she was congratulated by Juan Antonio Samaranch, her expected closest rival who got only 28 votes. Also in the race were four Presidents of Sports Governing bodies: Track and field’s Sebastian Coe; Skiing’s Johan Eliasch; Cycling’s David Lappartient; and, Gymnastics’ Morinari Watanabe. Also contending was Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan.
Coventry will formally replace her mentor Bach on June 23 — officially Olympic Day — as the 10th IOC president in its 131-year history. Bach reached the maximum 12 years in office.
Key challenges for the 41-year-old Auburn University graduate will be steering the Olympic movement through political and sporting issues toward the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, including engaging in diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump. Coventry’s IOC will also need to find a host for the 2036 Summer Games which could go to India or the Middle East.
The strongest candidates in a five-month campaign with tightly controlled rules drafted by the Bach-led IOC seemed to be Coventry — who gave birth to her second child — IOC Vice President Samaranch and Coe. Coventry’s manifesto offered mostly continuity from Bach with little new detail, while her rivals had specifics to benefit Olympic athletes, which she was as recently as 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
Coe’s World Athletics broke an Olympic taboo by paying $50,000 to track and field gold medalists in Paris last year. Samaranch promised to relax strict IOC commercial rules and give athletes control of footage of their Olympic performances.
Samaranch tried to follow his father, also Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was the IOC’s seventh President from 1980 to 2001.
Coe aimed to add to a remarkable career of Olympic triumphs: A two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meters, he led a bidding team for the 2012 London Olympics, then worked for the next seven years to head the organizing team of those widely praised Games. He got just eight votes. It has been a stellar week for Bach, who greeted Coventry and shared warm smiles after her acceptance speech.
Bach was feted on Wednesday in an emotional start to the IOC annual meeting, getting lavish praise and the title of honorary President for life. He repeated his wish to offer advice to the next president.
His hands-on executive-style Presidency will deliver over a financially secure IOC, on track to earn more than $8 billion in revenue through the 2028 LA Olympics, and with a slate of future hosts through 2034: in Italy, the United States, France, Australia and finally the U.S. again, when the Winter Games return to Salt Lake City.
A signature Bach policy also has been gender parity, with equal quotas of men and women athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics and giving a better balance of female members of the IOC and the executive board he chairs, which now has seven women among its 15 members, including Coventry. Her win will only add to Bach’s legacy for promoting women.
Coventry won back-to-back titles in 200-meters backstroke at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Beijing four years later. She joined the IOC in 2013, almost one year after a disputed athlete election at the London Olympics. Her place among the four athletes elected was eventually awarded after Court of Arbitration for Sport rulings against two opponents.
The voters in the exclusive invited club of IOC members included royal family members, former lawmakers and diplomats, business leaders, sports officials and Olympic athletes. Even an Oscar-winning actress, Michelle Yeoh.
Members voted without hearing further presentations from the candidates in an election that swung on a discreet network of friendships and alliances largely forged out of sight.
Coventry is the most successful African Olympian in history. She has participated in 5 Olympic Games, and won 7 Olympic medals in her lifetime – more than any other African in history! Kirsty Coventry broke 5 swimming world records during her career.
When Kirsty was 9-years old she told her parents she would go to the Olympic Games and win Gold. Her first Olympic Games was Sydney in 2000. In 2004, Kirsty won her first Olympic gold medal in Athens as well as silver and bronze. The moment marked the beginning of a record-breaking athletic career, with Kirsty ultimately becoming one of the world’s highest achieving female swimmers.
She went on to win another gold and three silver medals at the Beijing Olympic Games – a shining light for her fellow African athletes across all sporting disciplines. Kirsty qualified for the London Olympics in 2012 and then incredibly again for Rio de Janiero in in 2016, making it her 5th games!
Twice crowned Olympic champion, and with seven Olympic medals, Kirsty has won more individual Olympic medals than any female swimmer in history. She is also, without doubt, Africa’s most successful Olympic athlete, and her incredible journey has inspired – and continues to inspire – young athletes across the world to pursue their sporting ambitions, no matter the odds.
As a goal-driven and results-oriented athlete – who is not afraid to make sacrifices – Kirsty Coventry is no stranger to dedication and hard work, yet being mindful, she has always been able to recognize and enjoy the process while thriving in the moment.
Kirsty believes that true success is only achieved once you share acquired knowledge and the skills you have mastered. In fact, it is your responsibility to pass on these gifts…….!!!
Educationist/Administrator/Editor/Author/Speaker
Commencing teaching in his early twenties, Prof Aggarwal has diverse experience of great tenure in the top institutions not only as an educationist, administrator, editor, author but also promoting youth and its achievements through the nicest possible content framing. A revolutionary to the core, he is also keen to address the society around him for its betterment and growth on positive notes while imbibing the true team spirit the work force along with.
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