Swimming Champion Kirsty Coventry becomes First Ever Female President of IOC

• Kirsty Coventry elected as president of International Olympic Committee
• After her win, she becomes the first ever woman to achieve such a job
• She will be replacing her mentor Bach on June 23

In a recent announcement, Kirsty Coventry has been named as the International Olympic Committee’s president, becoming the first ever female as well as first African to get the biggest job in the landscape of global sports.

Kirsty is a two-time Olympic swimming gold medallist while being Zimbabwe sports minister. Currently for her new role, she has bagged a first-round win in a contest of seven candidates following the voting in the IOC membership race by almost 100 of her colleagues. After the win, she has acquired a mandate which will last for eight years, till 2033.

This turns out to be the most open as well as hard-to-call IOC presidential election over the decades, having no clear front-runner before the voting started. As per numerous predictions, an absolute majority could have taken quite a few rounds of votes to secure the position.

After her winning, Kirsty gave her acceptance speech, saying, “I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision you have taken. Now we have got some work together.”

Kirsty’s expected closest rival Juan Antonio Samaranch kissed her on the cheeks while congratulating her when she walked to the podium.

Moreover, there were four presidents of sports governing bodies in the race that includes Sebastian Coe of Track and field, Johan Eliasch of skiing, David Lappartient of cycling, and Morinari Watanabe of gymnastics.

On June 23 known to be officially Olympic Day, Kirsty will be formally replacing her mentor Bach (who has reached the maximum 12 years in office) as the 10th IOC president in its 131-year history.