IOC Elects Ex-Olympic Swimmer Coventry as Youngest President

(Bloomberg) — Kirsty Coventry, a seven-times Olympic medal-winning swimmer, was elected president of the International Olympic Committee, becoming the organization’s youngest ever head.

The Zimbabwe native, 41, was chosen in the first round of voting by IOC members on Thursday at their meeting in Greece. She also becomes the organization’s first female chief and the first from Africa.  

The new president defeated rival bids from the UK’s Sebastian Coe, who had arguably the most complete CV of any of the candidates, and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch, the Spanish investment banker whose father ran the IOC until 2001. 

Coventry faces a full inbox, from the future of Russia’s participation in the Olympics to transgender athletes in women’s sport. She will lead the search for new top-level sponsors to replace the three who departed last year. 

The new president must also impose spending discipline on upcoming host cities, especially after concerns over possible overspending on infrastructure by organizers of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics next year.

Coventry competed in her fifth and final Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and then served as chair of the IOC’s Athletes Commission from 2018 to 2021. She was was a member of the IOC’s Executive Board from 2018 to 2021 before returning to the board in 2023. 

(Updates with details on Coventry in last paragraph)

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