Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry has today made history as the first woman and African to become the president of the International Olympic Committee. And fittingly, this milestone was achieved in Costa Navarino, Greece, around 100km from the sacred site of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
10-MINUTE LIFE CHANGE In what many thought was one of the most unpredictable elections in IOC history, the 41-year-old Coventry only needed one round of voting in less than ten minutes to obtain the absolute majority of votes. While she was largely perceived as one of the frontrunners during the six-month campaign, with many believing she had the backing of the outgoing President Thomas Bach, there was really no clear-cut favourite among the record field of seven candidates prior to the election.
49 OUT OF 97 VOTED COVENTRY Out of a total of 97 possible votes, Coventry amassed 49. IOC Vice-President Juan Antonio Samaranch settled for second place with 28 votes. World Athletics President Sebastian Coe was third with 8 votes, followed by UCI President David Lappartient and FIG President Morinari Watanabe with 4 votes apiece. IOC Executive Board member Prince Feisal Al Hussein and FIS President Johan Eliasch got 2 votes each.
HISTORIC MOMENT FOR IOC A luxury resort overlooking the crystal clear waters of the Ionian Sea was the setting for this consequential gathering of the IOC’s exclusive club. This is a historic moment in the 130-year history of the IOC, which first co-opted women as members for the first time in 1981 at the Session in Baden-Baden, Germany. Then in 1997, Anita DeFrantz, a rowing bronze medallist in 1976, became the first female vice-president of the IOC, before running for the presidency in 2001.
“My very dear colleagues, this is an extraordinary moment,” Coventry began her acceptance speech. “As a nine-year-old girl, I never thought that 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 hopefully extremely confident in the decision that you’ve taken today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and now we’ve got some work together.
“And I would like to really thank all the candidates. This race was an incredible race and it made us better, made us a stronger movement. I know from all of the conversations that I’ve had with every single one of you how much stronger our movement is going to be when we now come back together and deliver on some of those ideas that we all shared. Thank you very much for this moment and thank you very much for this honour.
MOST DECORATED AFRICAN FEMALE OLY Coventry, Africa’s most-decorated Olympian with seven medals – including two golds – from five Olympic Games to her name, was first elected to the IOC as a member of the Athletes’ Commission in 2013, then as an individual member in 2021. She stated in her manifesto that she wanted “to give back to the Movement that has given me so much and allowed me to be who I am today”. And now she has the opportunity to do so.
She is currently serving on the IOC Executive Board and leading the IOC commissions monitoring the progress of the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics and 2032 Brisbane Olympics. She has been Zimbabwe’s minister of sport, arts and recreation since September 2018.
MISSION “My mission to drive empowerment, strengthen engagement, and ensure we remain relevant, is guided by the Ubuntu philosophy: ‘I am because we are.’ This principle highlights the combined strength of the Olympic community and our responsibility to uplift one another,” Coventry wrote in her manifesto.
8-YEARS TERM AS IOC PRESIDENT According to the Olympic Charter, the new president is elected on an initial eight-year term with the possibility of re-election to a second four-year term for a maximum of 12 years in total. To ensure a smooth transition, Coventry’s term of office will start on 24 June 2025.
