
<p><strong>The decorated former Olympian and Zimbabwe’s sports minister Kirsty Coventry will replace Thomas Bach as President of the IOC.</strong></p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-medium-font-size is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“It&#8217;s a signal that we&#8217;re truly global…”</p>
</blockquote>



<p>Double Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry continues to set new records after she was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday, becoming the first woman, first African and youngest-ever to hold the prestigious post in the 130-year history of the organization.<br>Zimbabwean Coventry, 41, needed only one round of voting as she secured her mandate, replacing outgoing president Thomas Bach, who did not stand for re-election.</p>



<p>&#8220;It is a really powerful signal,&#8221; Coventry said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a signal that we&#8217;re truly global and that we have evolved into an organization that is truly open to diversity and we&#8217;re going to continue.&#8221;</p>



<p>Coventry won 49 of the 97 votes in the first round for a majority ahead of Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, who earned 28 and finished in second. Sebastian Coe from the United Kingdom was third having managed only eight votes.</p>



<p>&#8220;This is not just a huge honor, but it is a reminder of my commitment to every single one of you that I will lead this organization with so much pride,&#8221; Coventry said at the IOC session in Pylos, Greece.</p>



<p>&#8220;I will make all of you very, very proud, and hopefully extremely confident with the choice you&#8217;ve taken today, thank you from the bottom of my heart.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to sit down with President Bach. We&#8217;re going to have a few months for a handover takeover. And what I want to focus on is bringing all the candidates together. There were so many good ideas and exchanges over the last six months.”</p>



<p>The next Summer Olympic Games are in Los Angeles in 2028 and Coventry must navigate an increasingly difficult geopolitical landscape that will inevitably spill over into sport.</p>



<p>&#8220;We need to look at the IOC and our Olympic movement and family and decide how exactly we&#8217;re going to move forward in the future,” she said. “What is it that we want to focus on in the first six months? I have some ideas, but a part of my campaign was listening to the IOC members and hearing what they have to say and hearing how we want to move together.</p>



<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s extremely important we have to be a united front and we have to work together. We don&#8217;t and we might not always agree, but we have to be able to come together for the betterment of the movement.&#8221;</p>



<p>Coventry is a decorated former Olympian having won two gold medals, four silver and a bronze in backstroke and medley events in the pool.</p>



<p>She shone at the Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) Games. &#8220;Greece seems to be my lucky charm,&#8221; she said with a smile.</p>



<p>Since retirement she has turned to politics having been Zimbabwe’s sports minister since 2018.</p>



<p>A champion of the African continent, Coventry has pledged to expand Olympic participation and ensure the Games remain relevant to younger generations.</p>


144th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session – Day Two

Meet The First Woman, First African And Youngest-Ever To Be Head Of The 130-Year-Old International Olympic Committee


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The International Olympic Committee on Friday confirmed that Russian and Belarusian citizens will be able to compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris as individual neutral athletes, prohibited from sporting the flag or colors of their countries or backing the war in Ukraine—after some IOC officials suggested the Ukraine invasion could lead to an all-out ban.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>The Russian and Belarusian teams remain prohibited, and state officials will not be invited to the Games,&nbsp;<a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/strict-eligibility-conditions-in-place-as-ioc-eb-approves-individual-neutral-athletes-ains-for-the-olympic-games-paris-2024" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the IOC confirmed on Friday</a>.</p>



<p>In addition to a ban on Russian and Belarusian flags, anthems and colors, the IOC also said that athletes or support personnel who actively support the war in Ukraine will be prohibited.</p>



<p>In its press release, the committee says it took into account “the view of the overwhelming majority of athletes not to punish fellow athletes for the actions of their government.”</p>



<p>Like all Olympic athletes, the “Individual Neutral Athletes” will have to sign the “Conditions of Participation” ahead of the 2024 games in Paris, which commits them to respect “the peace mission of the Olympic Movement.”</p>



<p>“Only a very limited number of athletes” will ultimately be eligible to participate under the “strict eligibility” conditions the IOC has laid out, the international organization claims.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Olympics officials hinted at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/russia-belarus-athletes-may-face-paris-2024-ban-iocs-reedie-2022-07-12/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">an all-out ban</a>&nbsp;from the 2024 Olympics for both Russia and its ally Belarus. In March, however, the IOC first laid the groundwork for Friday’s decision, recommending that international sports federations allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to competition and announcing its intention to explore a pathway for them to compete in the 2024 games. At the time, the organization&nbsp;<a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-issues-recommendations-for-international-federations-and-international-sports-event-organisers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;that it “feels deeply for the Ukrainian people” but it “cannot prevent wars and conflicts” nor “address all the political and social challenges in our world.” Despite Friday’s announcement, Russian and Belarusian athletes will still likely be barred from competing in the 2024 Games’ biggest sport area, track and field. World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, has maintained an all-out ban on Russia and Belarus since the war began, and has previously signaled its<a href="https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/russia-track-and-field-ban-suspension-olympics-2024-paris" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;“unlikely”</a>&nbsp;to reverse that ban.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent debate over its future in the Olympics, came just months before the country’s two-year ban from international sports due to its state-sponsored doping ring at the Sochi Olympics was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/11/29/russia-doping-ban-wada/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">set to expire.</a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>How Ukraine responds. After the board’s March announcement that it was working on a pathway for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete, Ukrainian officials threatened to&nbsp;<a href="https://olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-issues-recommendations-for-international-federations-and-international-sports-event-organisers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">boycott the Games.</a></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chief-critics">CHIEF CRITICS</h2>



<p>On X, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/DmytroKuleba/status/1733165492762804381" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">condemned the IOC’s decision</a>, claiming that the organization “essentially gave Russia the green light to weaponize the Olympics.” He argued that Russia “will use every Russian and Belarusian athlete as a weapon in its propaganda warfare.” Meanwhile, Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin called the Olympics’ continued restrictive policies on Russian athletes “discriminatory.” “They are damaging the Olympic Games themselves, and not Russian sport,” he said in comments reported by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/russia-says-ioc-rules-for-russian-athletes-discriminatory-c4c65786" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Agence France Presse</a>.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>11. That’s how many Individual Neutral Athletes have qualified for the games so far. That includes eight Russians and three Belarusians, the IOC said. So far, more than 60 Ukrainians have qualified.</p>


Tag: IOC

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Meet The First Woman, First African And Youngest-Ever To Be Head Of The 130-Year-Old International Olympic Committee

Russians Can Compete In 2024 Olympics Despite Ukraine War—But Only As Neutral Athletes