Kirsty Coventry wins seven-way battle to become first female IOC president

The five-time Olympian was known to be the preferred candidate of the outgoing president, Thomas Bach, and required just one round of voting to assume his mantle

Kirsty Coventry has won race to be IOC president (AFP via Getty Images)

Decorated former Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry has been appointed the first female and first African president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), beating six other candidates including Seb Coe.

The 41-year-old, who is Zimbabwe’s sports minister and a two-time Olympic champion, was the youngest and only female candidate and the known favourite of outgoing president Thomas Bach.

Thursday’s highly secretive election, held in the luxury Costa Navarino resort in Greece, was expected to be a close battle with multiple rounds of voting.

But Coventry swept the field, winning 51% of the votes in the first round to bring the election to an unexpectedly quick conclusion, with an outright majority required. Bach himself announced her election to the role.

“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, and I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you’ve taken today,” she said in a short acceptance speech.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart, and now we’ve got some work together. This race was an incredible race and it made us better, made us a stronger movement. Thank you very much for this moment, and thank you very much for this honour.”

Coventry had been one of the frontrunners, alongside World Athletics president Coe and the highly-fancied and influential Juan Antonio Samaranch, an IOC vice-president and the son of the IOC president of the same name, whose tenure ran from 1980 to 2001.

The other candidates were Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan and three presidents of sports governing bodies: Johan Eliasch of skiing, cycling's David Lappartient and Morinari Watanabe of gymnastics.

In the end Coventry’s 49 total votes dwarfed Samaranch, who received 28, while Coe only received eight and none of the remaining candidates received more than four votes. A total of 97 votes were cast.

The way the election works had been expected to benefit Coventry - although not necessarily to this extent - as a candidate’s compatriots cannot vote until they are eliminated. Observers thought the European voting bloc would likely be split between four candidates - Coe, Samaranch, Eliasch and Lappatient - in the early rounds, which would give Coventry a chance to get ahead first.

Seb Coe finished a distant third in the race to become Thomas Bach's successor (Getty Images)

The 41-year-old is significantly younger than most of the other candidates and had a fairly established voter base of women, African members and Bach loyalists, although the incumbent’s support for her also caused controversy as he was supposed to remain neutral.

Her campaign largely pitched her as a continuity candidate, which was likely to garner support in a conservative-leaning organisation. Although she attracted some criticism for her role as sports minister for Zimbabwe’s controversial president Emmerson Mnangawa, it does not appear to have affected her campaign.

Coventry’s role as chair of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, and background as Africa’s most decorated Olympian, was also thought to make her an appealing candidate to the growing number of former athletes in the IOC, such as American sprinter Allyson Felix.

Coventry was known to be Bach's preferred candidate to succeed him and a less outspoken, radical figure than Coe (Getty Images)

“The young girl who first started swimming in Zimbabwe all those years ago could never have dreamt of this moment,” she continued in her acceptance speech.

“I am particularly proud to be the first female IOC President, and also the first from Africa. I hope that this vote will be an inspiration to many people. Glass ceilings have been shattered today, and I am fully aware of my responsibilities as a role model.”

The new president will take office on 23 June, Olympic Day, and begin an eight-year term, with a possible four-year renewal should the IOC’s membership approve it. She will take on both the most powerful but also the most difficult job in sport, with multiple challenges - including AI, gender eligibility rules, the growing clout of authoritarian regimes, and the necessity of negotiating with Donald Trump over the 2028 Olympics - on the horizon.