- Title: IOC's Bach congratulates successor Coventry after election win
- Date: 20th March 2025
- Summary: PYLOS, GREECE (MARCH 20, 2025) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) OUTGOING INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC) PRESIDENT THOMAS BACH, WALKING TO PODIUM AT PRESS CONFERENCE AND SAYING: "Good afternoon to all of you. We would like to congratulate Mrs Kirsty Coventry for her election as the tenth President of the IOC. I think she will have a very strong mandate with this clear
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Greece IOC IOC Session International Olympic Committee Kirsty Coventry Pylos Thomas Bach
- Location: PYLOS, GREECE
- City: PYLOS, GREECE
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Europe,Olympics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001040320032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: PART AUDIO QUALITY AS INCOMING
Outgoing International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach congratulated his Zimbabwean successor to the role on Thursday (March 20) after a vote at an IOC session in Greece.
Kirsty Coventry smashed through the International Olympic Committee’s glass ceiling to become the organisation’s first female and first African president in its 130-year history.
The Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerged victorious to replace Bach, securing the top job in world sport and ushering in a new era for the Games.
Bach stressed that Coventry won her vote thanks to the merits of her policy proposals, not by virtue of the historic significance her victory would bring the organisation.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race, winning an immediate overall majority in the secret ballot with 49 of the available 97 votes.
She beat Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. who finished second, 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.
Bach said the process had been "an extremely fair election" and urged the losing candidates to rally behind Coventry - adding that some had already voiced their intention to do so.
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