Kirsty Coventry was elected Thursday as the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee, making the first woman and the first Africa to play the most powerful role in sports.
Ms Coventry, 41, from Zimbabwe, was the only woman among the seven candidates in the monthly electoral battle and will be the youngest chairman of the committee by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, co -founder in the late 19th century. As a swimmer, she holds seven of the eight Olympic medals of her country, including gold in the 2004 and 2008 games.
The elections, described in a similar language as a papal conclave, were settled – to be developed by viewers – in the first round of secret ballot from the International Olympic Committee. Member is an selective team that has not only sports leaders, but also kings, business moguls and even Hollywood stars.
With her decisive victory, Mrs Coventry Vaults at the top of world sports, in a position that requires diplomatic, financial and management and athletic knowledge. The ILO president must manage an institution that is responsible for the assignment and organization of games every two years that create billions of dollars and are coveted by politicians around the world as they seek to strengthen their own and their nation’s profiles.
“It is a message that we are truly global and that we have evolved into an organization that is really open to diversity and will continue to walk their way for the next eight years,” said Coventry, who was born her second child while camping for the post.
The role is not for the dims of the heart.
The departed leader, Germany’s Thomas Bach, a former gold who won the gold medal, served a 12 -year presidency characterized by a series of crises: revelations Russia had destroyed international sports for at least half a decade through a state -run doping program. Movement, Toky Woodcuts. Viewers a year later than scheduled.
Ms Coventry has urgent issues to address the right to the Authority. The next summer Olympics will take place in Los Angeles in 2028, at a time when US leadership worldwide is under control. There are also important decisions on the rights of transsexual athletes as well as the challenges set by the climate crisis.
“The next president will have a different set of problems,” said Michael Payne, a former ILO marketing manager, who added, is an “organization like no other”.
“It’s an act of balancing so that you can drive a global semi-cyber organization and at the same time execute it as if you are driving a Fortune 500 company because you have to do the business.”
Asked about the treatment of President Trump to prepare the Los Angeles Games, Ms Coventry said she had decades of experience in handling “difficult men in high positions”.
Ms Coventry, who has been a Minister of Sport in the Zimbabwe government for seven years, said she would lean on other candidates to discuss ways to move the ILO forward. Its manifesto was perhaps the least revolutionary, less than politics ideas, but with a commitment to listen to members who had complained to stay under the powerful Mr Bach.
“We may not always agree, but we must be able to meet for the benefit of the movement,” he said.
The elections themselves were strongly disputed and included a Byzantine set of rules and regulations that the candidates destroyed and were sometimes openly criticized. Access to voters during the election period was strictly controlled and there were even warnings about what to be included in advertising materials, leading a member to use photos created by artificial intelligence after limiting to representation of any individuals other than themselves.
In the last days and hours before the vote, in a secluded luxury holiday resort in southern Greece, rumors of rules for rules and paranoia kept many of the campaign groups. This was followed by a coating campaigns aimed at some of the candidates – including Ms Coventry – who had appeared on the internet and an anonymous complaint that lists a series of possible violations of the election rule that sent anonymously to the head of the IOC.
Many of the candidates have destroyed the strict rules surrounding the election, giving the vote an air of opacity and secrecy. The only gathering where candidates were able to sink into the committee members was held behind closed doors in February, with members forced to convert mobile phones before entering. A strict 15 -minute time was imposed and voters were forbidden to ask questions.
Still, for some members, these rules – and others – did not go far enough.
In this respect, any form of campaign should have been banned because, according to Syed Shahid Ali, a long -term representative from Pakistan, the ILO is more similar to the “Old Gentlemen’s Club” from the leading world sports organization. “In the normal behavior of the club you are not allowed to do this,” said Mr. Khan, a member of the ILO for nearly 30 years, before the vote. “Doing this you tell people that we are not close enough, we do not know each other enough.”
The generous appearance in Greece depicted the huge ILO wealth and the regime enjoyed by its members. Zip golf trolleys around the extensive resort, where rooms can cost more than $ 2,500 per night. Recent visitors have included actress Bill Murray and Cristiano Ronaldo football superstar.
The power of the body was also clear. The presence of the Olympic movement interrupted the filmmaking of director Christopher Nolan for the “Odyssey”, which took place nearby, after local officials gave birth to a helicopter crew until he left the city of Olympic circus.
During the vote, armed patrols, aircraft and Sniffer dogs wandered the facility, while members were forced to deliver their cell phones before they were allowed to enter the amphitheater where the elections were held.
There, they faced even more rules. Members from countries represented by candidates were not able to vote until their compatriots were eliminated.
Eventually it ended almost as soon as he started, with Mr Bach and the leading ILO administrator, Christophe de Kepper, staring when a check delivered the results of the first round. “You have elected a new ILO president,” said one spacious Mr De Kepper.
The victory was also immediately welcomed for the outgoing Mr Bach, who did a lot to ensure that Ms Coventry was considered a legal candidate to replace him, working phones and pressing members to choose the candidate who had his support. Voters heard, providing Ms Coventry the few 49 votes she required to secure a majority.
Mr Bach had made it clear what he thought was the best profile for the next president-“Olympic champion, non-European, different generation”-said that one of his winners, Juan Antonio Samaranch younger Mr. Samaranch had offered to follow his father’s two-year-olds.
“The overwhelming majority of ILO members voted for Kirsty Coventry,” he said. “And that meant that they had an idea that they wanted a generational change, opening the ILO to another continent, to another generation and to another sex.”
