Kirsty Coventry Elected 10th IOC President

Kirsty Coventry has been elected as president of the International Olympic Committee, vaulting into one of the most pressure-filled and prominent roles in the world of sport while making history as the first woman to hold the role.

Coventry was elected on Thursday in Greece at the IOC Session. She won in the first round of voting over a field of six other candidates to become the 10th president in the organization’s history.

Coventry, the sports minister of Zimbabwe, is an Olympic swimming champion who competed collegiately at Auburn University. A seven-time Olympic medalist who won gold in the 200-meter backstroke in 2004 in Athens and 2008 in Beijing, Coventry was the second female candidate to run for president, following American Anita DeFrantz in 2001. From 2018-21, Coventry was athlete representative on the IOC executive board.

Along with being the first female president, she is the first African leader in the IOC’s 131-year history. Ever since IOC President Thomas Bach announced during the 2024 Games in Paris that he would be stepping down, it was believed that Coventry was his preferred choice as a successor.

There were multiple reports that Bach, despite rules against lobbying, had been doing so on Coventry’s behalf ahead of the election. Coventry was seen as one of three leading candidates along with Sebastian Coe and Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. leading into Thursday’s election.

The presidential election took on a private method of campaigning; candidates could not publish campaign videos, organize public meetings or take part in public debates. Each of the seven were allowed to write a manifesto laying out their respective presidential visions in December before a presentation to the IOC membership in January that was closed to the public.

In a process likened to a papal election — and in the IOC’s view, perhaps even more important — only election monitors were allowed in the room as members voted. Coventry got 49 votes, the minimum needed for a majority in the first round. Samaranch, her expected closest rival, got 28 votes and  Coe, in third place, got eight.

Those three were the leading candidates from a field of seven. The rest of the field was Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan, a member of the IOC executive board, followed by UCI President David Lappartient, FIS President Johan Eliasch, Samaranch, Coe and FIG President Morinari Watanabe.

The Candidates Who Fell Short

Samaranch joined the IOC in 2001 when his father, also Juan Antonio Samaranch, left after 21 years as president. He has spent seven years as a vice president and before joining the IOC, he was vice president of the UIPM, the organization that organizes modern pentathlon. Samaranch served on the organizing committees for multiple Winter and Summer Games.

Samaranch grew up in Franco’s Spain, experienced the Soviet Union when his father was ambassador there, worked in 1980s banking and finance in the U.S. and is well connected in China. Samaranch was the IOC’s point person preparing for the 2022 Beijing Winter Games during the pandemic and delivered a manifesto with the most policy proposals.

Coe leads track’s World Athletics, organized the 2012 London Olympics and was viewed as perhaps the most qualified candidate. He is a two-time Olympic champion in track in the 1980s and four-time Olympic medalist overall. But Coe’s candidacy and standing within some of the other international federations took a hit when, ahead of the 2024 Games in Paris, he announced that gold-medal winners in athletics would get a $50,000 bonus.

The IOC, in its own subtle fashion, made opaque references that within the movement were seen as criticisms of the move although athletes obviously were approving. Coe also disrupted the status quo when saying that he would present himself for re-election after four years instead of eight.

Of those four others that were in the presidential field, Lappartient had the most name recognition, having been prominent during the organization of the 2024 Games in Paris. He has taken on roles in developing the IOC’s approach to esports and helped guide through the Alps’ rushed but ultimately successful bid to host the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Eliasch and Hussein had slight criticisms toward the opaqueness of the process but were never seen as top contenders even with legitimate, extensive backgrounds in business and international sport, even if they finished ahead of Samaranch and Coe in the first round. Neither was Watanabe, who tried to drum up publicity for his candidacy by visiting athletes in both Ukraine and Russia and whose manifesto proposed having five cities in five continents host a future Games to create a 24-hour global event.

The New President’s Inbox

The first Games in which Coventry will oversee is next winter in Italy with preparations underway in Milan and Cortina; its main outstanding issue will be what happens to the sliding track in Cortina and whether the rebuilt venue, which the IOC was less than thrilled with the cost of, will be approved for use. Should it not, bobsled, luge and skeleton will be held not in Europe but instead in Lake Placid, New York.

However, the next Summer Games will land squarely on Coventry’s desk. The 2028 Games in Los Angeles have been foisted as a potential political landmine for the IOC. It will fall in the final months of President Donald Trump’s second term; Trump recently said he would ban transgender athletes from women’s sport, which goes against an IOC rule. The U.S. visa program — and current restrictions for more than 40 countries who should compete in L.A. — was the subject of a question at Thursday’s IOC Session from IOC member Ingmar de Vos, the equestrian official who leads the collective group of Summer Games sports bodies.

De Vos cited a “red list” ban on travel to the U.S. from 11 countries. LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman replied that his team made “significant strides” with the administration.

“I have met with President Trump and his team both prior to his inauguration and again last month,” Wasserman said. “We have a regular cadence across all federal agencies with leadership from the president to make sure that these Games deliver for all our constituents.”

“I don’t anticipate any, any problems from any countries to come and participate,” Wasserman replied, noting the U.S. State Department has a “fully staffed desk” to help prepare.

“In my many conversations with President Trump and Secretary (Marco) Rubio they understand the scale and complexity required to deliver these Games, the access required for not just athletes but for delegations, and the incredibly short time frame on which to do those.”

With Games already awarded in 2030 (Winter, French Alps), 2032 (Summer, Brisbane) and 2034 (Winter, Salt Lake City). “Kirsty Coventry represents a bright future for the Olympic Movement and the unity it brings to our world,” said Fraser Bullock, executive chair and president of the 2034 SLC Organizing Commitee. “As we lead up to the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City-Utah, we will look to her guidance as an accomplished Olympic champion, and a young next-generational leader who has been a strong athlete voice and understands full well the impact the Olympic Movement can have on humanity.”

Coventry will oversee the process of looking for a host for the 2036 Summer Games. Those Games could have a host of prospective new markets for the IOC with India and Qatar, among others, showing interest in bidding. One potential question would be whether the 2036 Games would move dates because of climate change. Bach has hinted in the past that the future global sports calendar would be in flux because of rising temperatures and extreme weather; while the general thought was that was in regard to the Winter Games, such issues also extend to the Summer Games.

There is also the issue of Russia. The IOC has allowed Russian athletes to continue competing as neutral athletes at recent Games in the wake of the country’s widespread doping program that dates a decade. The IOC banned Russia from team sports at the Games in Paris after its invasion of Ukraine, allowing a limited number of individual athletes to compete.

Bach’s Legacy

Bach’s 12-year tenure as president was marked by a global pandemic, the hosting of Games that had less-than-stellar television ratings within the United States and a top-down approach to the role of IOC president and its executive board that some of the candidates ahead of the election gently tried to criticize as being not in line with the majority of members’ wishes.

The Games that were held under Bach as president were a mixed bag. The 2014 Winter Games in Sochi were his first and were then regarded as Vladimir Putin’s play for global sporting prestige no matter the construction cost; those games now are known best for Russia’s government-led doping scandal that hinted at the issues the IOC and Bach would have with the country in the years to come.

A greater challenge came two years later when the Summer Games were in Rio, marking the IOC’s first foray in South America. Those Games were completed but “it was a miracle those Games took place because the organization behind the scenes was, to put it diplomatically, seriously dysfunctional,” once said Michael Payne, head of the marketing division of the IOC from 1989 through 2004. “The IOC leadership, they went to bed each night not knowing if the Games would take place the next day. It was that bad.”

And while the 2018 Winter Games at PyeongChang were organizationally smooth, it portended a dip in U.S. TV ratings that became a regular storyline as the next two editions of the Games, Summer and Winter, were held under COVID-related restrictions that Bach deserves credit for pushing through with force of will but did so at great cost financially.

The Olympic movement was revitalized last summer with what was universally regarded as a tremendous 2024 Games in Paris, which came close to perfection in executing Bach’s Olympic Legacy 2020 project in organizing a Games that did not result in massive budgetary venue overruns, instead brilliantly mixing the city’s historic locations and turning them into a series of temporary sports venues.

One of Bach’s final moves as president was a bookend to his reign. Last week, the IOC announced a four-year extension with NBC to broadcast the Olympics throughout the United States for $3 billion, giving NBC the rights to showcase the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The U.S. television deal is one of the biggest sources of revenue for the IOC and continues a relationship with the network that has lasted for decades, including a then-surprising deal between the IOC and NBC that was for 12 years and made in 2014 at the start of Bach’s tenure.

Bach will retain the title of Honorary President for Life, which was given to him by acclaim before the presidential election.