Kirsty Coventry has been elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the first woman and first African to get the top job in global sport aged just 41.
Coventry succeeds German Thomas Bach, who steps down after 12 years, and told her fellow IOC members she would work with the six other heavyweight rivals she beat in the election.
“This is an extraordinary moment. “As a nine-year-old girl I never thought that I would be standing up here one day, getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours,” said Coventry.
“This is not just a huge honour but it is a reminder 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 and, I hope, extremely confident in the decision you’ve made today.’
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
The Zimbabwe sports minister and two time Olympic swimming gold medalist won a stunning first-round win in the seven candidate contest after voting by nearly 100 of her colleagues in the IOC membership.
Coventry, who was strongly believed to be Bach’s favoured candidate, was thought to be in a tight race with IOC veteran Juan Antonio Samaranch Junior and World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe.
It had been the most open and hard-to-call IOC presidential election in decades, with no clear front-runner before the vote.
However, to general surprise the race was over after the first round of voting.
A majority of the IOC members placed their faith in her to meet the serious challenges that lie ahead.
Coventry received 49 of the 97 votes possible, with Samaranch obtaining 28 and Coe third with eight votes.
Samaranch was bidding to emulate his father of the same name who led the Olympic movement for 21 years and World Athletics president Coe was seeking to become the first Briton.
Ski federation chief Johan Eliasch, Morinari Watanabe, president of the international gymnastics federation, cycling head David Lappartient and Prince Feisal al-Hussein were the other four candidates.
On Monday, Bach refused to be drawn on whether he backed Coventry, saying only that a new era “requires new leaders.”
Coventry will now be tasked with steering the Olympic Movement into a new era, overseeing future Games and addressing key challenges.
