IMAGE: As the new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry will now be tasked with steering the Olympic Movement into a new era, overseeing future Games. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters
Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday, becoming the first woman and first African to lead the world’s wealthiest multi-sport organisation in its 130-year history.
The Zimbabwean needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Thomas Bach, winning an immediate overall majority in the secret ballot with 49 of the available 97 votes.
Coventry beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. into second place, the Spaniard winning 28 votes. Britain’s Sebastian Coe, considered one of the front runners in the days leading up to the vote, came third with eight votes.
The remaining votes went to Frenchman David Lappartient, Jordan’s Prince Feisal, Swedish-born Johan Eliasch, and Japan’s Morinari Watanabe.
“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,” a beaming Coventry told her fellow IOC members.
“I will make all of you very, very proud. This really was an incredible race and it made us all better, it made us a stronger movement.”
