Kirsty Coventry elected IOC president, becoming first woman and first African to lead the Olympic body

Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday and became the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in world sports.

“It is a signal that we are truly global,” the Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist said.

Hers was a stunning first-round win in the seven-candidate contest after voting by 97 IOC members.

She gets an eight-year mandate into 2033 aged just 41 — youthful by the historical standards of the IOC.

It was 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.

“The young girl who first started swimming in Zimbabwe all those years ago could never have dreamt of this moment,” Coventry said in her acceptance speech.

“I am particularly proud to be the first female IOC president and also the first from Africa,” she added. “I hope that this vote will be an inspiration to many people. Glass ceilings have been shattered today, and I am fully aware of my responsibilities as a role model.”

“I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you have taken. Now we have got some work together,” she said.

Walking to the podium, she was congratulated and kissed on both cheeks by Juan Antonio Samaranch, her expected closest rival who got 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.

“We celebrate Kirsty’s election as president of the IOC and eagerly anticipate collaborating with her as she steers the Olympic Movement into the future,” the U.S. Olympic Committee said in a statement. “As an Olympian and a dedicated IOC member, Kirsty has demonstrated a strong commitment to advancing global sport and creating opportunities for athletes. As we look forward to a transformative decade of Olympic and Paralympic sport in the United States—welcoming the Games back in 2028 and 2034—a robust partnership with the IOC will be essential. We are confident that under Kirsty’s leadership, the IOC will provide the stability and support necessary to achieve our shared goals.”  

Challenges ahead for the Olympics

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 recently 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.

Coventry in her manifesto wrote she would “continue to prioritize [athletes’] mental health, physical recovery, and amplify their holistic well-being to help them thrive throughout their athletic careers and beyond.” 

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 on Thursday 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 next president can oversee the IOC making a statement choice for its host for the 2036 Summer Games.

“There is one and one only,” Samaranch said on Wednesday when asked about challenges ahead. “We must concentrate (on) successful and relevant Olympic Games. The rest comes with success in the Games.”

The voters in the exclusive invited club of IOC members include 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.