Double Olympic Champion Kirsty Coventry Elected As The IOC’s First Female President
Double Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry has become the first female President of the International Olympic Committee following the election at the 144th IOC Session in Costa Navarino, Greece.
Coventry – who has served as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts & Recreation since 2018 – is also the first African to be elected to the office in the IOC’s 131-year history and succeeds Thomas Bach whose tenure ran from 2013.
The five-time Olympian was widely believed to have been Bach’s preferred candidate and had been one of the frontrunners along with Lord Sebastian Coe and Juan Antonio Samaranch Jnr.
Kirsty Coventry – Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Also vying for the presidency were Swede Johan Eliasch, France’s David Lappartient, Japan’s Morinari Watanabe and Jordan’s Prince Feisal al Hussein.
The election had been expected to last at least five rounds but was resolved after only one round of voting with the seven-time Olympic medallist securing an absolute majority with 49 of 97 votes.
Samaranch got 28 votes followed by Coe (8), Watanabe and Lappartient (4 apiece) and Eliasch & Prince Feisal (2 each).
Bach was elected Honorary President earlier in the session, a lifetime role that was unanimously approved by IOC members which will commence after his presidency ends on 23 June.
Following the result, Coventry said: “Dear president and my very dear colleagues, this is an extraordinary moment. As a nine-year-old girl I never thought I would be standing up here one day, getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours.
“This is not just a huge honour, but it is a reminder of my commitment to every single one of you, that I will lead this organisation with so much pride, with the values at the core, and I will make all of you very very proud, and also extremely confident in the decision you have made today.”
Coventry won the 200 back at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 as well as four silvers and a bronze across five Olympics between 2000 and 2016. She also claimed three world titles among eight medals.
She was was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as part of the distinguished Class of 2023.
Born in Harare in September 1983, Coventry was first elected as an IOC Member as a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission in 2013 and served in that role until 2021, when she was elected as an individual member.
The President-elect was elected Chair of the IOC Athletes Commission in 2018, becoming a member of the IOC Executive Board in the process. She was also the IOC Athlete Representative on the World Anti-Doping Agency from 2012-2021 and a member of WADA’s Athlete Committee from 2014-2021.
In an interview with the BBC earlier in March, Coventry addressed the issue of protecting the female category, which includes ensuring that any transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty are not allowed to compete in the female classification. The topic has been hotly debated over the past few years, but the IOC has deferred to various international federations when establishing rules.
Coventry wants the IOC to be more involved, saying: “I believe with the work that has been done with the IFs, the rules they have put in place, you can see there has been research done where it’s showing a disadvantage to women, to the female category. From the conversations that I’ve had now, a lot of the international federations want the IOC to take a more leadership role. We have more facts, there’s more science and medical research being done. We need to protect the female category and I think it’s time right now for the IOC to take that leading role.”