Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry became the first woman and African to be elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday, declaring it to be an “extraordinary moment”.
At 41, the two-time Olympic swimming champion is also the youngest person ever to be elected to the most powerful position in sports governance.
The Zimbabwean Sports Minister succeeds Thomas Bach, who steps down after 12 years, and said she would work with the six other heavyweight rivals she beat.
“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.
“This is not just a huge honour but it is a reminder 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, I hope, extremely confident in the decision you’ve taken today. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
Coventry, who was strongly believed to be Bach’s favoured candidate, 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 over after the first round of voting with 49 of the 97 votes cast by the IOC members placing their faith in her.
Samaranch Junior garnered 28 votes and two-time Olympic 1500 metres champion Coe a humbling eight.
For both of them, their dreams of one day being IOC president are over with Samaranch now 65 years old and Coe 68.
Although she fought a low-key media campaign compared to Coe and Samaranch Junior, son of the legendary president of the same name, her lobbying was so effective that one seriously ill member specifically flew in for the vote.
Questions had been raised about her being a minister in a government whose election in 2023 was declared undemocratic and unfair.
However, it made little impact with her electorate even though she faces geopolitical challenges, such as Russia perhaps returning to the fold after the invasion of Ukraine.
She will also have to deal with the unpredictable US President Donald Trump, as Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Games.
Coventry, though, said she also wanted to work with all her rivals and absorb their ideas.
“We’ve got some work together,” she said. “I would like to really thank the candidates, all candidates.
“This race was an incredible race and it made us better, made us a stronger movement.
“I know from all of the conversations that I’ve had with every single one of you how much stronger our movement is going to be when we now come back together and deliver on some of those ideas that we all shared.”
