Kirsty Coventry has been elected the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee.
The 41-year-old Zimbabwean was chosen in a secret ballot of seven candidates at the 144th IOC Session being held in Costa Navarino, Greece, on Thursday (20 March), for an eight-year term of office.
President-elect Coventry replaces outgoing President Thomas Bach, who was first elected in 2013 and re-elected in 2021.
She will be the first woman and the first African to serve as IOC President.
President-elect Coventry will assume office after the handover from President Bach on Olympic Day, 23 June. President Bach, who remains in the role until then, will also resign as an IOC Member after the transfer of power and will then assume the role of Honorary President.
The President-elect will oversee the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 as her first Olympic Games, with under 11 months to go to the Opening Ceremony.
Results of the election for the 10th IOC President: HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein 2David Lappartient 4Johan Eliasch 2Juan Antonio Samaranch 28Kirsty Coventry 49Lord Sebastian Coe 8Morinari Watanabe 4 pic.twitter.com/AE3z0vE6r3-- IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) March 20, 2025
Get to know the new IOC President-elect
President-elect Coventry is currently an IOC Member and the Minister of Sport, Art & Recreation in Zimbabwe. She has been the country's Minister of Sport since 2018. Additionally, she served as a Vice President of the International Surfing Federation from 2017 to 2024.
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The former swimmer was first elected as an IOC Member as a member of the IOC Athletes' Commission in 2013 and served in that role until 2021, when she was elected as an individual member.
The President-elect was elected Chair of the IOC Athletes Commission in 2018, becoming a member of the IOC Executive Board in the process. The 41-year-old was also the IOC Athlete Representative on the World Anti-Doping Agency from 2012-2021 and a member of WADA's Athlete Committee from 2014-2021.
A Harare native, President-elect Coventry competed at five different Olympic Games. Between her debut at Sydney 2000 and competing for the final time at Rio 2016, she won seven Olympic medals (two gold, four silver, one bronze), taking gold in the 200m backstroke at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. No other African athlete has won more Olympic medals.
She also won three long-course World Championship gold medals and four short-course titles during her career, in addition to a Commonwealth Games gold and 14 African Games golds.
