Kirsty Coventry has been elected as the new President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), becoming the first woman to hold this position in the organization’s 130-year history. She secured a majority vote in the first round of elections during the 144th IOC Session held in Greece yesterday (20).
Coventry, a Zimbabwean national born in 1983, is also the first African and the youngest person to be elected as IOC President. She will officially assume office in June this year, succeeding Thomas Bach. Her term will last for at least eight years.
A former Olympic swimmer, Coventry won two gold medals in the women’s 200m backstroke event at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Olympics. She has a total of seven Olympic medals—two gold, four silver, and one bronze. After retiring from competition in 2016, she has served as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Sport since 2018.
Her leadership will begin with the 2026 Milano Winter Olympics, which is now less than 11 months away.
