Kirsty Coventry crossed the glass ceiling of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday to become the first woman and first African president of the organization in its 130 years of history.
The Zimbabuense swimming, which was already an imposing figure in the Olympic circles, was victorious to replace Thomas Bach, ensuring the best work in world sport and marked the beginning of a new era for the games.
“It’s a really powerful sign,” said a smiling country when the victory sank. “It is a sign that we are really global and that we have evolved to an organization that is really open to diversity and that we will continue.”
Coventry only needed a voting round to get the race to succeed Bach, winning an immediate general majority on the secret ticket with 49 of the 97 votes available.
She beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. In second place, the Spanish won 28 votes. Sebastian Coe of Great Britain, considered one of the front in the days before the vote, arrived a distant third with only eight votes.
The handful of the remaining votes was for the French David Lappartient, the Feisal Prince of Jordan, Johan Eliasch, and the Morinari Watanabe of Japan.
“This is not just a great honor, but it is a reminder of my commitment to each of you that I will lead this organization with such pride,” a radiant country told its other COI members in the Seaside resort in the Southwestern Peloponnese de Greece that organized the ICI session.
“I will do them all very, very proud and, hopefully, with great confidence with the choice I have taken today, thanks from the bottom of my heart,” he added.
Coventry said he now wants to unite all candidates.
“I’m going to sit with President Bach. We are going to have a few months for a delivery delivery. And what I want to focus on is to gather all the candidates. There were many good ideas and exchanges in the last six months.
“Look at the IOC and our Olympic movement and the family and decide how exactly we are going to advance in the future. What do we want to focus on the first six months? I have some ideas, but a part of my campaign was to listen to the members of the IOC and listen to what they have to say and hear how we want to move together.”
Unit sample
The first round land sliding of Coventry was a sample of unity in the body, he said.
“It is extremely important that we have to be a united front and we have to work together. We do not do it and we do not always agree, but we have to unite to improve the movement.”
An Olympic medalist seven times, Coventry won 200 meters of back in the 2004 Athens Games and again in Beijing four years later.
It was added to the COI athlete commission in 2012, and its choice to the main work indicates a new era for the IOC, with the expectations that it will contribute a new perspective to pressing issues such as athletes’ rights, gender debate and the sustainability of games.
Sports development champion in Africa, Coventry has pledged to expand Olympic participation and ensure that games remain relevant to younger 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 largely depended on its transmission and multi -million dollar sponsorship agreements.
While taking the helm, the global sports community will be watching closely to see how Coventry shapes the future of the world’s largest multisport organization.
While his choice was widely popular among the CII family, there was a concern in some sectors about his links with the Zimbabwe government, for whom he serves as Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation, a position that has raised his eyebrows given the problematic story of Zimbabwe with political freedoms.
The country has faced sanctions from the United States and the European Union. Coventry’s long recognition in Zimbabwe, where former President Robert Mugabe awarded him a $ 100,000 prize for his success at Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, adds more complexity to the situation. Mugabe was in power for 37 years before being overthrown in a coup d’etat backed by the Army in 2017.
Although Coventry has tried to separate from political affairs, its ministerial role and its relationship with Zimbabwe’s leadership continue to be controversial problems as it enters the leadership of the most powerful sports organization in the world.
On Thursday, however, she was all smiles.
Champion in Athens 2004, victorious again in Pylos: his touch of gold in Greece does not show signs of fading.
“Greece seems to be my charm of luck,” he smiled.
