Kirsty Coventry struck the glass ceiling of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday to become the first woman and first African president of the organization in 130 years of history.
Zimbabwean swimming big, already an imposing figure in the Olympic circles, came out victorious to replace Thomas Bach, guaranteeing the best job in world sport and inaugurating a new era for games.
“It’s a really powerful signal,” said Coventry smiling while victory was flowing. “It is a signal that we are really global and that we have evolved into a organization that is really open to diversity and we will continue.”
Coventry only needed a voting round to win the race to succeed Bach, winning an immediate global majority in the secret ballot with 49 of the 97 votes available.
She beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. in second place, the Spaniard winning 28 votes. Sebastian Coe, in Great Britain, considered one of the leading runners in the days preceding the vote, came a third distant with only eight votes.
The remaining handle of votes went to French David Lappartient, Prince Feisal of Jordan, Johan Eliasch, born in Swedish, and Morinari Watanabe from Japan.
“It is not only an immense honor, but it is a reminder of my commitment to each of you that I will direct this organization with so much pride,” said Coventry radiating to his colleagues members of the CIO at Luxury Seaside Resort in the southwest of the Peloponnese of Greece which organized the session of the IOC.
“I will make you all very, very proud and I hope extremely confident with the choice you made today, thank you from the bottom of your heart,” she added.
Coventry said she wanted to bring together all the candidates.
“I will sit with President Bach. We are going to have a few months for a transfer repurchase. And what I want to focus on is to bring together all the candidates. There have been so many good ideas and exchanges in the last six months.
“Look at the IOC and our Olympic movement and our family and decide how we are going to go ahead in the future. What we want to focus in the first six months? I have some ideas, but part of my campaign was to listen to the members of the IOC and to hear what they have to say and to hear how we want to move.”
Unit demonstration
Coventry’s landslide in the first round was a unity demonstration in the body, she said.
“It is extremely important that we must be a united front and we have to work together. We do not do it and we may not always agree, but we must be able to come together for the improvement of the movement.”
Olympic medalist seven times, Coventry won 200m of gold gold at the 2004 Athens games and again in Beijing four years later.
It was added to the CIO athlete commission in 2012, and its election to the first job signals a new era for the IOC, with expectations that it will bring a new perspective to urgent questions such as athletes’ rights, the debate between the sexes and the sustainability of the games.
Champion of sport development in Africa, Coventry is committed to extending Olympic participation and guaranteeing that the games remain relevant to the young generations.
It also inherits the complex task of navigating relations with global sports federations and sponsors while maintaining the financial stability of the IOC, which has relied heavily on its dissemination and sponsorship agreements of several billion dollars.
As it takes over, the global sports community will watch closely to see how Coventry shapes the future of the world’s largest multi-sport organization.
While her election was largely popular among the IOC family, there was concern in certain districts on her links with the Zimbabwean government, for whom she serves as a Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Leisure, a position that has raised eyebrows given the problematic history of Zimbabwe with political freedoms.
The country has faced sanctions from the United States and the European Union. The longtime recognition of Coventry in Zimbabwe, where she received a prize of $ 100,000 by former president Robert Mugabe for her success at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, adds additional complexity to the situation. Mugabe was in power for 37 years before being overthrown in a coup to be supported by the army in 2017.
Although Coventry has tried to separate from political affairs, its ministerial role and its links with the leadership of Zimbabwe continue to be controversial questions as it enters the direction of the most powerful sports organization in the world.
On Thursday, however, she was smiling.
Champion in Athens 2004, Victorious still in Pylos – his golden touch in Greece shows no sign of discoloration.
“Greece seems to be my lucky charm,” she smiles.
