How Kirsty Coventry emerged the runaway winner of the IOC polls, beating Seb Coe and Co

In the organisation’s 130-year history, this is the first time a woman — and an African — has been elected to the all-important post. While her victory can’t be termed as a surprise — Coventry was seen as the outgoing president Thomas Bach’s preferred choice to take over — that the process did not go beyond one round would have shocked her six opponents, prominent of them being former Olympic champion Sebastien Coe of Britain.

Coe, the World Athletics president who stirred the pot by announcing prize money for Olympic medallists in track and field, got just eight votes to finish third behind Coventry and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior, who received 28 votes. Coventry, 41, will take charge of the organisation that governs world sport and conducts the Olympic Games, in June when the official handover will take place.

That the first woman president of the IOC is from Zimbabwe is not a coincidence, given that all of the African country’s Olympic gold medallists are women — the first in 1980, when the hockey team finished on the top of the podium and then in 2004 and 2008, when Coventry swam to Olympic golds.

“The young girl who first started swimming in Zimbabwe all those years ago could never have dreamt of this moment,” Coventry told the elite group of 100-plus IOC members who voted, comprising royalty, heads of state, Hollywood A-listers and billionaires.

“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.”

India’s stakes

From an Indian point of view, Coventry will preside over the decision to select the host of the 2036 Olympics. India has mounted an aggressive bid for the Games and is in competition with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among at least 10 more nations, to host the 2036 edition.

In an interview with The Indian Express earlier this month, Coventry had welcomed India’s bid, saying it was ‘it’s really very awesome to see the number of newer regions so interested in hosting the Games.’

At the same time, she had warned that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which has been in an administrative flux for more than a year, must first get its house in order. “At the end of the day, we need strong NOCs that have good governance and transparency and are working well for the development of their sports and for the Olympic movement within the country,” Coventry had told this daily.

The future hosts of the Summer and Winter Olympics is one of the many decisions Coventry will be faced with. She takes over the IOC at a time when world sport keeps getting drawn into geopolitical battles, its business model remains under scanner, the concept of ‘enhanced Games’ ups the ante at a time when doping remains rife in the Olympics and climate change disrupts the Winter Olympics scheduling and the training programmes of Summer Olympians.

Coventry will also have to navigate the challenges posed by the Trump presidency in the build-up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, the latest being a visa ban on nearly a dozen countries.

Among the top issues in the lead up to the LA Games will be the participation of transgender and athletes with high testosterone levels in the women’s category.

In her interview with The Indian Express, Coventry had said ‘it is time to protect women’s sport’. “Everyone should have access to sport, but when it comes to high-level competition and competing at the Olympic Games, for right now there should only be two categories, the male and female categories, and I believe the IOC should take a leading role based on the conversations with the International Federations,” she had said.

Coventry also flew down to Dubai to meet International Cricket Council chairman Jay Shah on the sidelines of India’s Champions Trophy semifinal against Australia earlier this month, where the plight of Afghanistan women’s cricketers was discussed.

Shah was also present at the IOC Session on Thursday in his capacity as the ICC chairman. Former Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, too, was a special invitee. Both of them did not have voting rights. India’s only voting member at the election was Reliance Foundation chairperson Nita Ambani, the country’s only IOC member.