Kirsty Coventry has been elected as the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee. The 41-year-old Zimbabwean was chosen by secret ballot among seven candidates during the 144th IOC Session held on Thursday, March 20th in Costa Navarino, Greece, for an eight-year term.

The elected President Coventry succeeds outgoing President Thomas Bach, who was first elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2021. She received 49 votes in the first round, exactly the number needed to obtain a majority out of 97 votes cast.

She will take office after the handover from President Bach on June 23, 2025. President Bach, who will remain in office until then, will also resign as an IOC member after the transfer of power and assume the role of Honorary President.

The elected President will be the first woman and the first African to hold the position of IOC President. She will oversee the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games as her first Olympics, less than 11 months before the Opening Ceremony.

"This is an extraordinary moment. As a nine-year-old girl, I would never have thought that one day I would be here, contributing to our incredible Movement," the elected President Coventry stated during the Session.

"This is not just a great honor, but also a reminder of my commitment to each of you: I will lead this organization with great pride, with values at the center. And I will make all of you very, very proud and, I hope, extremely confident in the decision you made today. Now we have work to do together. This campaign has been incredible and has made us better, has made us a stronger Movement."

WHO IS THE NEW PRESIDENT
The elected President Coventry is currently an IOC Member and Minister of Sport, Arts and Recreation in Zimbabwe. She has been the country's Sports Minister since 2018. Additionally, she was vice president of the International Surfing Federation from 2017 to 2024. The former swimmer was first elected as an IOC Member as a member of the IOC Athletes' Commission in 2013 and held this role until 2021, when she was elected as an individual member.

The elected President was elected President of the IOC Athletes' Commission in 2018, thus becoming a member of the IOC Executive Board. The 41-year-old was also IOC Athletes' Representative to the World Anti-Doping Agency from 2012 to 2021 and a member of the WADA Athletes' Committee from 2014 to 2021.

Native of Harare, the elected President Coventry participated in five different Olympic Games. Between her debut in Sydney 2000 and her last race in Rio 2016, she won seven Olympic medals (two gold, four silver, and one bronze), winning gold in the 200m backstroke in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Throughout her career, she also won three gold medals at Long Course World Championships and four short course titles, as well as a gold at the Commonwealth Games and 14 golds at the African Games.