PYLOS, Greece, March 21 — Kirsty Coventry smashed through the International Olympic Committee’s glass ceiling yesterday to become the organisation’s first female and first African president in its 130-year history.
The Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerged victorious to replace Thomas Bach, securing the top job in world sport and ushering in a new era for the Games.
"It's a really powerful signal," a smiling Coventry said as the victory sank in. "It's a signal that we're truly global and that we have evolved into an organisation that is truly open to diversity and we're going to continue."
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, winning an immediate overall majority in the secret ballot with 49 of the available 97 votes.
She beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. into second place, the Spaniard winning 28 votes. Britain’s Sebastian Coe, considered one of the front runners in the days leading up to the vote, came a distant third with only eight votes.
"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," a beaming Coventry told her fellow IOC members at the luxury seaside resort in Greece’s southwestern Peloponnese which hosted the IOC Session.
"I will make all of you very, very proud, and hopefully extremely confident with the choice you've taken today, thank you from the bottom of my heart," she added.
A seven-times Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and again in Beijing four years later.
She was added to the IOC's Athletes’ Commission in 2012, and her election to the top job signals a new era for the IOC, with expectations that she will bring a fresh perspective to pressing issues such as athlete rights, the gender debate and the sustainability of the Games.
— Reuters
