Coventry wins the race to succeed Thomas Bach and will be first African to become International Olympic Committee chief.
Kirsty Coventry has smashed through the glass ceiling of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to become the organisation’s first woman and first African president in its 130-year history.
The Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerged victorious on Thursday in the race to replace Thomas Bach, securing the top job in world sport and ushering in a new era for the Games.
“It’s a really powerful signal,” she smiled as the victory sunk in. “It’s a signal that we’re truly global and that we have evolved into an organisation that is truly open to diversity and we’re going to continue.”
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, winning an immediate overall majority in the secret ballot with 49 of the available 97 votes.
She beat out second-placed Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, with the Spaniard winning 28 votes. Britain’s Sebastian Coe, considered one of the frontrunners in the days leading up to the vote, came third with eight votes.
The remaining votes went to Frenchman David Lappartient, Jordan’s Prince Feisal Al Hussein, Swedish-born Johan Eliasch, and Japan’s Morinari Watanabe.
“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,” a beaming Coventry told her fellow IOC members at the luxury seaside resort in Greece’s southwestern Peloponnese that hosted the IOC Session.
“I will make all of you very, very proud, and hopefully extremely confident with the choice you’ve taken today, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she added.
Coventry said she wants to bring all the candidates together.
“I’m going to sit down with President Bach. We’re going to have a few months for a handover takeover. And what I want to focus on is bringing all the candidates together. There were so many good ideas and exchanges over the last six months.
“Look at the IOC and our Olympic movement and family and decide how exactly we’re going to move forward in the future. What is it that we want to focus on in the first six months? I have some ideas, but a part of my campaign was listening to the IOC members and hearing what they have to say and hearing how we want to move together.”
Coventry was only the second female candidate ever to stand for the IOC presidency, and the first one to have a realistic chance to win it, said Al Jazeera’s Andrew Richardson, reporting from Greece.
“Thomas Bach has placed her in a series of positions within the IOC to try and give her the best possible platform to display her diplomatic and administrative skills, and she’s progressed through the ranks very quickly,” Richardson said.
“Bear in mind this is an organisation that’s not just having its first female president. Up until 1981, there were no female members of the IOC, so truly a breakthrough time for the International Olympic Committee.”
