Incoming International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry has revealed to Sky News she is against banning countries from the Olympics over wars and will open talks on Russia being allowed back into the Games.
Coventry, who will become the first woman and the first African to hold sport’s highest office, swept to victory in the first round of voting with World Athletics president Sebastian Coe a distant third, having secured only eight of the 97 available member votes.
Only Russians competing as neutrals were allowed into Paris 2024 as punishment for Moscow launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and incorporating sports bodies in occupied territories.
But the first African leader of the IOC sees inconsistencies in the current approach singling out Russia while there are conflicts on her own continent.
Asked a day after her election if she was against banning countries from the Olympics over conflicts, Coventry said: “I am, but I think you have to take each situation into account.
“And what I would like to do is set up a taskforce where this taskforce tries to set out some policies and some guiding frameworks that we as the movement can make decisions when we are brought into conflicts.
“We have conflicts in Africa and they’re horrific at the moment. So this is not going away, sadly.
“Our responsibility is also to ensure once those athletes are all there, that they’re safe and that we protect and support them during the Olympic Games.
“So there’s a fine balance. But ultimately I believe that it’s best for our movement to ensure that we have all athletes represented.”
Coventry also spoke about protecting the female category
Coventry’s long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a competitive swimmer, will no doubt prove useful as the IOC prepares for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. She was a star swimmer for Auburn University in Alabama.
Ties with the US government will be crucial with President Donald Trump having also apparently discussed with Vladimir Putin using sports to heal relations with Russia.
While the next Summer Olympics are not until 2028 in Los Angeles, there are less than 11 months until the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Asked whether Russia will be back by then, she said: “We’re going to have that discussion with a collective group.”
Gender eligibility
World Athletics has been exploring whether to introduce swab tests to assess gender eligibility with a key meeting taking place next week due to discuss the issue amid concerns about fairness over athletes with differences of sex differences and transgender women competing in women’s sport.
The IOC has previously called a return to sex testing a “bad idea” but Coventry is not ruling it out as she spoke about protecting the female category.
“This is a conversation that’s happened and the international federations have taken a far greater lead in this conversation,” she said.
“What I was proposing is to bring a group together with the international federations and really understand each sport is slightly different.
“We know in equestrian sex is really not an issue, but in other sports it is.
“So what I’d like to do again is bring the international federations together and sit down and try and come up with a collective way forward for all of us to move.”
Embracing new regions
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand opportunities for Africa and Middle East to host the Olympics for the first time, as well as potential interest from India 2036.
“There’s a few slight adjustments that I’d like to make in terms of involvement of the IOC members – that was something very clearly related to me in this campaign,” she said.
“But embracing new regions will be a part of what I would like to see.
“I think if we can embrace new regions across the entire movement, it opens this up for so many different opportunities, including revenue growth, including being able to reach new audiences.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sky Sports’ senior reporter Geraint Hughes gives the lowdown on Kirsty Coventry, the first woman to be elected president of the International Olympic Committee, and explains what her initial challenges will be
How significant is Coventry’s victory?
Sky Sports News senior reporter Geraint Hughes:
“It’s huge news and the significance will probably only become clearer in the weeks, months and years to come.
“Coventry is the first female president of the IOC in 131 years. There have previously only been nine presidents, all men.
“It is a highly male-dominated environment within the IOC, although that has been changing in recent years. But for the top job at the IOC, and arguably the most powerful job in sport to now be held by a woman, the visibility and the optics of this cannot be underestimated.
“Coventry’s manifesto, her mandate, is one of slow evolution rather than revolution. She was the preferred candidate of the current incumbent president, which may explain why she won certainly within the first round due to the influence of Thomas Bach.
“She is viewed as a very safe pair of hands, and the visibility of Coventry becoming the first female president of the IOC, a position of such huge power and visibility, cannot be underestimated.”
Is Coventry’s election a surprise?
Hughes: “Yes and no. No because Coventry was viewed as one of the three frontrunners of the seven candidates available, along with Coe of the UK and Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch.
“What was a surprise is that the voting was done and dusted within one round of voting in less than two minutes.
“To secure the president of the IOC, the voting had to be achieved with a majority, so 50 per cent plus one. Most onlookers thought it wouldn’t be done in the first round, maybe the second, third, even fourth round of voting.
“It was being seen as viewed prior to the vote, the closest IOC presidential election in history. It transpired to be anything but. So, not a surprise she won, but a surprise she secured the majority in the first round of voting.”
How close did Seb Coe get?
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Lord Coe accepts defeat to Kirsty Coventry in the IOC Presidential vote and says he welcomes the fact it’s a former Olympic athlete who will take up the role
Hughes: “In the end, he was a long way off. He came third in the voting, but his eight votes paled into insignificance compared to Coventry’s 49.
“Even though it was felt Coe had a lot of second-preference voting, had the voting gone beyond the first round, with those numbers – 49 to Coventry, 28 to Samaranch – it does look unlikely Coe was ever going to be in with a shout of achieving the presidency of the IOC.”
What next for Coe?
Hughes: “He won’t disappear. He’s still one of sports administrators’ most highly visible personalities. He’s still president of World Athletics, which is Olympic’s largest sport.
“It’s an organisation which he will argue has led the way on how to deal with Russia with regards to state-sponsored doping and also on their invasion of Ukraine.
“Coe will also point to the fact that he’s led the way with an unambiguous position on elite transgender athletes competing in female sports at the protection of the female category. He’s been clear and unambiguous about that.
“So he will not suddenly go quietly into the night. He still has a huge role to play within World Athletics, but he is also one of sports’ most charismatic administrators. He will be around for some years to come.”
Is the IOC presidency the most powerful job in sport?
Hughes: “Yes it is! Every sporting federation on the planet is a member of the IOC – football, boxing, athletics, cricket, rugby, all of them. It is also a job that has to deal with geopolitics and politics and it has some influence within that sphere as well.
“It has the ear of prime ministers and presidents. Indeed, a pressing job for Kirstie Coventry will be to speak with US President Donald Trump. The next summer games are being held in Los Angeles in 2028.
“There are many issues to discuss around those games – how involved Trump will want to be with his larger-than-life personality, and how the IOC will want to keep control of those games.
“There’s also a number of issues surrounding sport and Olympic values and ethics which perhaps Trump does not share, so there will be some challenging conversations ahead for Coventry.”
