IOC elects first woman president

The Manila Times

IOC elects first woman president   Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on March 20, 2025, becoming the first woman and first African to lead the world’s wealthiest multi-sport organization in its 130-year history. The Zimbabwean needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Thomas Bach, winning an immediate overall majority in the secret ballot with 49 of the available 97 votes. Coventry beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. into second place, the Spaniard winning 28 votes. Britain’s Sebastian Coe, considered one of the front runners in the days leading up to the vote, came third with eight votes. The remaining votes went to Frenchman David Lappartient, Jordan’s Prince Feisal, Swedish-born Johan Eliasch, and Japan’s Morinari Watanabe.   IOC/REUTERS   Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein    #TheManilaTimes  #tmtnews  #IOC  #olympics

Transcript

00:00It's like winning my first Olympic medal in 2004.

00:03It's a little bit surreal.

00:04You've gone six months working really hard,

00:07speaking to all the members.

00:09I'm just truly grateful to them,

00:11for them to have put so much confidence and trust into me.

00:15And I'm looking forward to working with them

00:18to move the Olympic movement forward.

00:21It's a really powerful signal.

00:23It's a signal that we're truly global

00:27and that we have evolved into an organisation

00:31that is truly open to diversity.

00:34And we're going to continue walking that road

00:38in the next eight years.

00:41I think it speaks volumes

00:43when you can really truly understand

00:46what the athletes are going through.

00:48They're at the heart of our movement.

00:50President Bach ensured that they remained at the heart.

00:55I will continue to do that.

00:57But it really does make a big difference

00:59when you're talking to athletes

01:01and you can understand where they're coming from,

01:03what their expectations are,

01:05because you lived it and you went through it.

01:07And that is a really powerful thing.

01:09So I'm honoured to have been successful here in Athens in 2004.

01:14And Greece seems to be my lucky charm.

01:18It's extremely important.

01:20We have to be a united front and we have to work together.

01:24We don't and we might not always agree,

01:27but we have to be able to come together

01:28for the betterment of the movement.

01:31I have had incredible mentors in my journey

01:35in this Olympic environment since I came in in 2013.

01:40And one of the first things that one of them said to me

01:42is we are the guardians and we're the protectors

01:45and we have to serve the movement

01:47in order to ensure that it lasts for generations to come.

01:50And that's what we're going to be doing.

01:53Well, right now, we're going to come together.

01:57I'm going to sit down with President Bach.

01:59We're going to have a few months for a handover takeover.

02:04And what I want to focus on is bring all the candidates together.

02:09There were so many good ideas and exchanges over the last six months.

02:13I'd really like to leverage off of that

02:16and then really bring everyone back together and have a reset.

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