Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerges victorious to replace Thomas Bach
\n London
\nKirsty Coventry smashed through the International Olympic Committee\u2019s glass ceiling on Thursday to become the organisation\u2019s first female and first African president in its 130-year history.
\nThe Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerged victorious to replace Thomas Bach, securing the top job in world sport and ushering in a new era for the Games.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a really powerful signal,\u201d a smiling Coventry said as the victory sank in. \u201cIt\u2019s a signal that we\u2019re truly global and that we have evolved into an organisation that is truly open to diversity and we\u2019re going to continue.\u201d
\nCoventry 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.
\nShe beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. into second place, the Spaniard winning 28 votes. Britain\u2019s Sebastian Coe, considered one of the front runners in the days leading up to the vote, came a distant third with only eight votes.
\nThe remaining handful of votes went to Frenchman David Lappartient, Jordan\u2019s Prince Feisal, Swedish-born Johan Eliasch, and Japan\u2019s Morinari Watanabe.
\n\u201cThis 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,\u201d a beaming Coventry told her fellow IOC members at the luxury seaside resort in Greece\u2019s southwestern Peloponnese which hosted the IOC Session.
\n\u201cI will make all of you very, very proud, and hopefully extremely confident with the choice you\u2019ve taken today, thank you from the bottom of my heart,\u201d she added.
\nCoventry said she now wants to bring all the candidates together.
\n\u201cI\u2019m going to sit down with President Bach. We\u2019re 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.
\n\u201cLook at the IOC and our Olympic movement and family and decide how exactly we\u2019re 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.\u201d
\nShow of unity
\nCoventry\u2019s first-round landslide was a show of unity in the body, she said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s extremely important we have to be a united front and we have to work together. We don\u2019t and we might not always agree, but we have to be able to come together for the betterment of the movement.\u201d
\nA seven-times Olympic medallist , Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and again in Beijing four years later.
\nShe was added to the IOC\u2019s Athletes\u2019 Commission in 2012, and her election to the top job signals a new era for the IOC, with expectations that she will bring a fresh perspective to pressing issues such as athlete rights, the gender debate and the sustainability of the Games.
\nA champion of sport development in Africa, Coventry has pledged to expand Olympic participation and ensure the Games remain relevant to younger generations.
\nShe also inherits the complex task of navigating relations with global sports federations and sponsors while maintaining the IOC\u2019s financial stability, which has relied heavily on its multibillion-dollar broadcasting and sponsorship deals.
\nAs she takes the helm, the global sporting community will be watching closely to see how Coventry shapes the future of the world\u2019s biggest multi-sport organisation.
\nWhile her election was broadly popular among the IOC family, there was disquiet in some quarters over her links with the Zimbabwean government, for whom she serves as Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts, and Recreation, a position that has raised eyebrows given Zimbabwe\u2019s problematic history with political freedoms.
\nThe country has faced sanctions from the United States and the European Union. Coventry\u2019s longstanding recognition in Zimbabwe, where she was given a $100,000 award by the former President Robert Mugabe for her success at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, adds further complexity to the situation. Mugabe was in power for 37 years before being overthrown in a military-backed coup in 2017.
\nAlthough Coventry has attempted to separate herself from political affairs, her ministerial role and ties with Zimbabwe\u2019s leadership continue to be contentious issues as she steps into the leadership of the world\u2019s most powerful sports organisation.
\nOn Thursday, though, she was all smiles.
\nChampion in Athens 2004, victorious again in Pylos \u2014 her golden touch in Greece shows no signs of fading.
\n\u201cGreece seems to be my lucky charm,\u201d she smiled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerges victorious to replace Thomas Bach London Kirsty Coventry smashed through the International Olympic Committee\u2019s glass ceiling on Thursday to become the organisation\u2019s first female and first African president in its 130-year history. The Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-468451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n