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≡ COVENTRY ELECTED ≡
Upon the announcement of her election as the next President of the International Olympic Committee at the 144th IOC Session in Greece, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry addressed the IOC members:
“Dear President and my very dear colleagues:
“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.
“This is not just a huge honor, but it is a reminder of my commitment to every single one of you that I will lead this organization with so much pride, with the values at the core and I will make every one of you very, very proud, and hopefully extremely confident in the decision that you’ve taken today.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart and now we’ve got some work together, and I would like to really thank the candidates, all of my candidates. This race was an incredible race, and it made us better. It 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.
“Thank you very much for this moment and thank you very much for this honor.”
Coventry won the one-round vote over six other candidates, with 49 votes, the exact minimum number required to win in the first round, out of 97 votes cast:
● 28: Juan Antonio Samaranch (ESP)
● 8: Sebastian Coe (GBR)
● 4: David Lappartient (FRA)
● 4: Morinari Watanabe (JPN)
● 2: Prince Feisal Al Hussein (JOR)
● 2: Johan Eliasch (GBR)
At 41, she will be the second-youngest IOC President ever, and brings multiple firsts, including being the first woman President of the IOC and the first from Africa. She has extensive U.S. ties, having swum collegiately at Auburn University.
She reflected on what happened a few minutes later:
“It’s like winning my first Olympic medal in 2004, it’s a little bit surreal. You’ve gone six months, working really hard, speaking to all the members. I’m just truly grateful to them, for them to have put so much confidence and trust into me.”
Asked about the message sent by the membership by electing a woman, an African and on the first ballot, Coventry observed:
“It sends a really powerful signal. It’s a signal that we’re truly global and that we have evolved into an organization that is truly open to diversity. And we’re going to continue working that road in the next eight years.”
And the first thing to do?
“We’re going to come together, sit down with President [Thomas] Bach, we’re going to have a few months for a handover-takeover. What I want to focus on, is bring all the candidates together.
“There were so many good ideas, and exchanges over the last six months, I’d really like to leverage off of that, and than really bring everyone back together, have a re-set, look at what the IOC members and our Olympic Movement and family and decide how, exactly, we’re going to move forward in the future. What is it that we want to focus on, in the first six months?
“I have some ideas, but part of my campaign was listening to IOC members and hearing what they have to say, hearing how we want to move together.”
Noting that she was an Olympic gold medalist from Athens in 2004, she added, “Greece seems to be my lucky charm.”
¶
LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman wrote on X:
“Congratulations Mrs. Kirsty Coventry on your election as the President of the IOC; we are excited to partner with you as we prepare to deliver an unforgettable Games experience in 2028.”
Salt Lake City-Utah 2034 organizing committee President Fraser Bullock saluted her win, saying “Kirsty Coventry represents a bright future for the Olympic Movement and the unity it brings to our world. …
“We will look to her for 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.”
¶
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