A new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been elected.
Kirsty Coventry, the two-time Olympic gold medallist and Zimbabwe sports minister, has become the first woman and first African to be elected to the position.
Britain’s Lord Sebastian Coe lost out in the election he entered as an outsider.
The peer went up against rivals more favoured by the IOC establishment and stood apart from the field with some of his policies – including a blanket ban on transgender women competing in women’s sports.
Ms Coventry swept aside the competition, getting far more votes than anyone else.
She won in the first round with the required 49 votes, while Juan Antonio Samaranch, in second place, got 28 votes, with Lord Coe picking up eight.
Kirsty Coventry celebrates her gold medal at the 2004 Olympics.
Pic: Reuters
Speaking after her election victory, Ms Coventry said: “As a nine-year-old girl I never thought 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.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart and now we’ve got some work together.”
Mr Samaranch congratulated her on her way to the podium to make her speech.
The election almost entirely took place in the shadows in a Conclave-style process that gives the winner an eight-year mandate – with the option to run for four more.
The vote was conducted in the luxury resort of Costa Navarino, in Greece, and confirmed the IOC’s 10th leader in its 131-year history.
Voters in the exclusive club of IOC members include royal family members, former politicians and diplomats, business leaders, sports officials and Olympic athletes – even an Oscar-winning actress, Michelle Yeoh.
Members voted without hearing further presentations from the candidates in an election that swung on a discreet network of friendships and alliances largely forged out of sight.
Ms Coventry’s first games in charge will be the Winter Olympics in Milan in 2026 followed by the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Among the issues she will have to deal with include navigating a smooth path between politics and sport in the 2028 US games opposite Donald Trump, and picking a host for the 2036 summer competition.
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IOC President Thomas Bach holds up the name of Kirsty Coventry as she is announced as his replacement.
Pic: AP
Previous IOC president Thomas Bach formally leaves office on Olympic Day, 23 June, having served a maximum of 12 years in office.
He will pass on a financially secure IOC, on track to earn more than $8bn (£6.2bn) at the LA 2028 games.
One of his signature policies has been gender parity with equal quotas of male and female athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics and giving an improved balance of female members in the IOC and on the executive board he chairs.
Also competing in the election were the heads of three other sports governing bodies: skiing’s Johan Eliasch (two votes), cycling’s David Lappartient (four), and gymnastics’ Morinari Watanabe (four), along with Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan (two).
