Kirsty becomes first woman and African to lead IOC

Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry became the first woman and African to be elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday, saying it was an “extraordinary moment”.

At 41, the two-time Olympic swimming champion is also the youngest ever elected to be the most powerful person in sports governance.

“It is a really powerful signal we are truly global and evolved into an organisation open to diversity,” said Coventry, who paid tribute to her supporter Anita DeFrantz, the first woman to run for the post of IOC supremo.

“It is significant women like her paved the way for more women like me and I want to pave the way for younger generations, especially because I have two young daughters.”

Coventry, the Zimbabwean sports minister, is a close ally of the German Thomas Bach, who steps down as IOC supremo after 12 years.

“This is an extraordinary moment. As a nine-year-old girl I never thought that I would be standing up here one day, getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours,” Coventry said.

Bach was thought to favour Coventry but after the vote he again refused to be drawn on the issue.

“She has a very strong mandate, it is a great signal of unity in the Olympic movement and she can count on the support of the membership,” said Bach, who hands over power officially on June 24.

Coventry was thought to be in a tight-run race with IOC veteran Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior and World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe.

However, to general surprise the race was decided in the first round of voting.

Coventry received 49 of the 97 votes possible, with Samaranch obtaining 28 and Coe third with a humbling eight votes.

Samaranch was bidding to emulate his father of the same name who led the Olympic movement for 21 years and World Athletics president Coe was seeking to become the first Briton.

For both, their dreams of being IOC president one day are over, owing to their ages.

Ski federation chief Johan Eliasch, Morinari Watanabe, president of the international gymnastics federation, cycling head David Lappartient and Prince Feisal al-Hussein were the other four candidates.

None of that quartet garnered more than four votes.

GEOPOLITICAL HURDLES

Questions had been raised about Coventry being a minister in a Zimbabwean government.

“I don’t think you can stand on the sidelines and scream and shout for change. I believe you have to be seated at the table to try and create it,” she said at her first press conference.

Coventry faces enormous geopolitical challenges, such as dealing with US president Donald Trump in the run-up to Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Summer Games.

She said “communication will be key” with Trump.

“I have been dealing with, let’s say, difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old,” she said.

She will take over a financially secure IOC but faces a febrile geopolitical situation.

Samaranch Junior, a polished performer who is IOC vice-president, congratulated Coventry and said he “was not going anywhere.”

“It is very good news, the IOC is moving into the future, she has so much support from the membership, we will all walk behind her,” he said.

Bach appeared to view Coe as the disruptor candidate, which is perhaps surprising given many would view him as an establishment figure.

His low score will be a bitter blow to the two-time 1,500 metres Olympic champion and organiser of the 2012 London Games.

Coe took the dashing of his dream on the chin. Asked if it had been a clean fight, he replied: “It was an election.”

“I am really pleased for Kirsty, it is really good there is an athlete at the top of the organisation,” Coe added.

One of the major issues Coventry will face is the question of whether to allow Russia to return to the Olympic fold.

In Paris last year Russian athletes had to compete under a neutral banner, owing to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Coventry on her election, saying it was “proof of your high authority in the sporting world”, while sports minister Mikhail Degtyaryov said on Telegram he hoped it would lead “to Russia returning to the Olympic podium”.

Kirsty Coventry says she has “learned the best lessons by failing” and the Zimbabwean swimming great’s mantra appears to have served her well after she became the first woman and African to be elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“Everything’s scary. Embrace that. You have to fail,” Coventry told the swimming team at her American alma mater Auburn University last year.

“I’ve learned the best lessons by failing, and I have failed at many things. Life has a really good way of humbling you.”

Failure would seem relative if one takes a look at the 41-year-old’s CV.

Coventry, who had the Olympic rings tattooed on a leg after her first Games in 2000, is, like one of her rivals Sebastian Coe, a two-time Olympic gold medallist.

She contributed seven of Zimbabwe’s overall medals tally of eight.

She has proved to be an effective networker since becoming an IOC member in 2013 and is head of the 2032 Brisbane Games Co-ordination Commission – a sign of the confidence the hierarchy has in her adminstrative and organisational abilities.

Like Coe and international cycling federation president David Lappartient, she has accrued domestic political experience, though hers is on another level as she has been Zimbabwe’s Minister for Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation since 2019.

That was thought to be her Achilles heel as she was serving in a government whose election in 2023 – she was re-appointed to her ministerial role – was declared to be “neither free nor fair”.

Coventry defended herself when the subject was broached during her low-key media campaign – unlike other candidates she did not employ heavyweight PR agencies but relied on her husband and father of her two children, Tyrone Seward.

“I have learned so many things from stepping into this ministry role,” she said in January.

“But I have taken it upon myself to change a lot of policies within my country and how things are done.”

Her record as a minister has been heavily criticised by the arts community in particular.

“If the President wants to improve the Zimbabwean arts and culture, he should appoint a more suitable minister,” arts critic Fred Zindi told Zimbabwe newspaper NewsDay.

“Coventry has been kept there simply because she is white.”

Mnangagwa, whose predecesor Robert Mugabe labelled Coventry “a golden girl” and awarded her $100 000 after she came back with another gold medal from Beijing in 2008, hit back.

“I have re-appointed her because l am happy with her performance,” said the 82-year-old.

“Whoever was not impressed by her can appoint someone else when they become President.”

‘VERY HARD TIMES’

In 2004, Coventry gave an insight into why she would later accept such a poisoned chalice and how whites in Zimbabwe have to perform a delicate balancing act.

“Zimbabwe is my home,” she said after returning to a heroine’s parade following the Athens Olympics where she won her first gold medal.

“It’s where I was born. It’s my culture. I will always represent Zimbabwe. Colour doesn’t matter to me.

“I think every country goes through bad years and good years.”

Coventry had a largely urban upbringing, her parents Rob and Linn owned a chemicals firm in a suburb of Harare, but the farming evictions affected her too.

“I have had very close family members and friends on farms who have gone through very hard times,” said Coventry.

Away from the controversies Coventry has shown her mettle in dealing with Zimbabwean football chiefs and Fifa.

She backed the government body Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) when it suspended the Zimbabwean Football Association (ZIFA) over allegations of fraud and sexual harassment of referees.

Fifa takes a zero tolerance policy of political interference in its associations and barred Zimbabwe from international football in February 2022.

However, by September the same year they were back in the fold.

A ZIFA official was later banned for five years for sexually harassing three female referees.

Coventry said in 2023 that the process had been “hard, but it was worth it, to have a way forward that’s going to benefit us as a country – 110 per cent it was worth it,” said.

In the same determined manner Coventry took on the sceptics who questioned her qualifications for the IOC role and on Thursday, once again, she prevailed.-Supersport/STAFF WRITER