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  • 10 months ago
Zimbabwe's sports minister Kirsty Coventry has been elected as the new president of the International Olympic Committee, becoming the first woman and first African to hold the role. She defeated a slate of seven candidates and will replace outgoing President Thomas Bach.
Transcript
00:00History has been made as 41-year-old swimmer Kirsty Coventry, who won two Olympic gold
00:06medals and heels from Zimbabwe, will replace Thomas Baksh.
00:10She was happy the members voted beyond her gender and country.
00:14I'm grateful as well to have been given a platform to work extremely hard over the last
00:22six months with IOC members to really, as you said, make sure that they know who I am
00:31and what values I hold dearly and it wasn't just about being a woman or being from Africa.
00:37I'm so grateful that the members saw more than just gender or where I come from.
00:45She defeated world athletics boss Lord Sebastian Coe by securing 49 of the 97 votes in the
00:50first round in Greece.
00:52Runner-up Juan Antonio Samarang Jr. won 28 votes.
00:57According to the BBC, France's David Lappartient and Japan's Morinari Watanabe earned four
01:04votes each, while Prince Faisal Al Hussein of Jordan and Sweden's Johan Eliaks both took
01:11two.
01:12Coventry, a sports minister in Zimbabwe, is the 10th person to hold the highest office
01:16in sport.
01:18Previously, she had won seven of Zimbabwe's eight Olympic medals.
01:22Now she can add another title as she sits on the throne of the IOC.
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