Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on March 20. She created history by becoming the first woman and first African to hold the post of ICC president. The 41-year-old is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming and has also served as the sports minister in Zimbabwe.
Coventry has been elected for the role after a stunning first-round win in the seven-candidate contest. Nearly 100 IOC members participated in the voting, which Coventry won. Interestingly, no candidate was deemed favourite ahead of the election as a hard contest was fought but eventually, the two-time gold medalist winner emerged victorious.
Calling it an extraordinary moment, Coventry mentioned that she never thought of becoming IOC president and talked about giving back to the movement. The second-youngest IOC president in history also promised to lead the organisation with pride and values.
“This is an extraordinary moment. As a 9-year-old girl, I never thought that I’d be standing up here one day getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours,” she said in an address to IOC members moments after outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach made the announcement.
“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 have taken today. Now we've got some work together. This race was an incredible race and it made us better, made us a stronger Movement,” she added.
She will now oversee the operations of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 as her first task. The event will begin in 11 months.