Two-time Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe has been elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The election took place during the 144th IOC session in Greece.
International Gymnastics Federation President Morinari Watanabe, International Association of Athletics Federations President Sebastian Coe, Union Cycliste Internationale President David Lappartient, International Ski Federation President Johan Eliasch, International Olympic Committee Vice-President Juan Antonio Samaranch, and IOC Executive Board member Faisal Al Hussein also ran for the top IOC post.
Coventry will be the first woman to head the IOC. She will take office on June 24. Until then, the IOC will be led by its current president, Thomas Bach of Germany.
The future IOC president is 41 years old. She is a two-time Olympic champion (2004, 2008) in the 200-meter backstroke. She also has three Olympic silver medals, one bronze medal and is a three-time world champion.
She has been Zimbabwe’s Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture since 2018. Coventry has been a member of the IOC Executive Board since 2023, having served as a member from 2018-2021.
Bach, 71, was elected IOC president for an eight-year term in 2013 and re-elected for a four-year term in 2021. During Bach’s IOC presidency, Russian sport has been sanctioned several times, most recently after the start of the special military operation in Ukraine.
Russian athletes were banned from international competitions in 2022, and in March 2023 it was recommended that they be allowed to participate in tournaments only in neutral status and only if they are not affiliated with the armed forces and do not represent team sports.
