Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry elected to lead the International Olympic Committee

by · KSL.com

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe was elected as the first woman president of the International Olympic Committee.
  • She won the presidency, succeeding Thomas Bach, for an eight-year term.
  • Coventry, an Olympic champion swimmer, could oversee Utah's 2034 Winter Games as president.

SALT LAKE CITY — Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe was elected president of the International Olympic Committee Thursday, becoming the Switzerland-based organization's first woman and first African leader.

"This is an extraordinary moment," Coventry said in brief remarks to the committee session after the election. Seen as the choice of outgoing International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, Coventry won in the first round of voting over six other committee members.

Coventry, the youngest in the race at 41, was elected to an eight-year term but will be eligible to run for a second term of four years, meaning she could be the committee president presiding over Utah's 2034 Winter Games.

An Olympic champion swimmer, she competed in five Summer Games and serves as her country's minister of sport, art and recreation. Coventry joined the International Olympic Committee in 2013 as a member of the committee's Athletes' Commission.

She will become the 10th president of the International Olympic Committee in June, when Bach's term ends.

His 12-year tenure as leader was celebrated Wednesday with his election as "Honorary President for Life" by committee members, a ceremonial position he'll assume when his presidential term ends on June 23. Bach has served on the International Olympic Committee for 34 years.

Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry reacts after setting a new world record in the women's 100-meter backstroke semifinals during the swimming competitions in the National Aquatics Center at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Monday, Aug. 11, 2008.David J. Phillip, Associated Press

The leaders of Utah's next Olympics didn't have a favorite in the race, Fraser Bullock, the Utah organizing committee president and executive chair, has said, pledging "whoever it is, we'll be 100% on board."

Bullock said her election "represents a bight future for the Olympic movement and the unity it brings to our world."

IOC President Thomas Bach holds up the name of Kirsty Coventry as she is announced as the new IOC president at the International Olympic Committee's 144th session in Costa Navarino, western Greece, Thursday, March 20.Thanassis Stavrakis, Associated Press

Before Thursday's vote, committee members heard from leaders of four of the next five Olympics starting with the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Utah's 2034 Winter Games, however, provided a written report to the session.

Bullock said he was told a month ago there wouldn't be time to make a presentation at the session. He said the report was a brief update on the newly formed organizing committee and would not be made public.

Kirsty Coventry is embraced as she is announced as the new IOC President at the International Olympic Committee's 144th session in Costa Navarino, western Greece, Thursday, March 20.Thanassis Stavrakis, Associated Press

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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