With the Olympics coming to Salt Lake City in a short nine years, Utah is in preparation mode. And so is the International Olympic Committee.
A huge win for women in sports came Thursday morning as Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe was elected the tenth President of the IOC.
Her landslide victory occurred in Costa Navarino, Greece. Sources say it was expected to be a long, multi-round election; but Coventry landed her required 49 votes in the very first cast.
This is the first time the position of president has been held by both a woman and an African. Up to this point all of the IOC presidents have been European or American men, who have all been more than 10 years older than Conventry’s current age of 41 at the time of their elections, making her the youngest president ever.
The new president represented her home country of Zimbabwe as a swimmer in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics. With seven of Zimbabwe’s eight Olympic medals, and all its golds, Coventry currently stands as Africa’s most decorated Olympian. Her achievements have created opportunities for influence that she never expected.
When she competed in the 2004 games in Athens, Coventry brought home her first three medals, including a gold in the 200 meter backstroke while her home country was in a time of “severe political turbulence,” but according to Forbes Magazine, “the nation dropped everything to celebrate her and her accomplishments, throwing her a hero’s welcome,” when she arrived home after the games.
In a January 2025 interview, Coventry said, “when I got home it was a time of three days or four days of peace, so I really got to see the power of sport.”
After her retirement post-2016 Games in Rio, Coventry became the Minister of Sport, Art, and Recreation in Zimbabwe — further expanding her influence. Her political career overlapped with her athletic career though.
Coventry was elected to the IOC Athletes’ Commission in 2012 where she served until 2023 when she was appointed to the Executive Committee, and was announced as a presidential candidate in Sept. 2024.
Coventry’s election platform was her promise to keep the athletes as the priority of the Committee.
“I think it speaks volumes when you can truly understand what the athletes are going through," she said. "They’re at the heart of our movement (by) strengthening women’s sports by protecting female athletes and promoting equal opportunities for women at all levels of our movement.”
On top of her career in politics, Coventry is also a wife and mother to a four-year-old little girl.