Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe has become the first female president of the International Olympic Committee after beating another ex-Olympian Sebastian Coe in a vote.
The 41-year-old becomes the first woman and first African in the post and will replace current president Thomas Bach on June 24.
Victory for Coe would have been the peak of a stellar career in sports administration which followed great success in track and field, where he won Olympic gold in the 1500m at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games.
Results of the election for the 10th IOC President:
HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein 2
David Lappartient 4
Johan Eliasch 2
Juan Antonio Samaranch 28
Kirsty Coventry 49
Lord Sebastian Coe 8
Morinari Watanabe 4 pic.twitter.com/AE3z0vE6r3— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) March 20, 2025
Coe led the bid and organising teams for the London 2012 Games and was the chairman of the British Olympic Association from 2012 to 2016. Since 2015 he has been president of World Athletics.
However, a majority of 49 out of the 97 IOC members eligible to vote selected Coventry to lead the organisation. She will now serve an eight-year term as president.
Coe only received eight votes, to finish third behind Coventry and Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr.
Coventry said in her acceptance speech: “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 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, with the values at the core, and I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision that you’ve taken today.”
Coventry, seen in some quarters as the preferred candidate of outgoing president Bach, won gold in the 200 metres backstroke at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, out of a total of seven medals she won overall.
