Geneva, Swiss Confederation (Weltexpress). Two-time Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry from the Republic of Zimbabwe officially took office as President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Monday, 23 June 2025, succeeding Thomas Bach from the Federal Republic of Germany. The 41-year-old Coventry was elected to head the Olympic body after being voted the first female IOC president at the 144th IOC Session in the Hellenic Republic last March.
A total of five candidates stood for election at the 144th Session. Alongside Coventry, Sebastian Coe (UK), Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. (Kingdom of Spain), Morinari Watanabe (Japan), David Lappartient (French Republic), Johan Eliasch (UK) and Prince Faisal bin Hussein (Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan) were also on the list of candidates.
Coventry, from the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a two-time Olympic champion in the 200-metre backstroke (2004 and 2008). The newly elected IOC President has been Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture in Zimbabwe since 2018 and has also won three silver medals and one bronze medal. Coventry has been a member of the IOC Executive Board since 2023 and was already a member of the committee between 2018 and 2021.
At the end of February, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee accepted the resignation of the previous IOC President Thomas Bach. Olympic champion Bach was elected IOC President for a term of eight years at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2013. In 1976, Bach won Olympic gold in the team foil competition at the Summer Olympics in Montreal. After his first eight-year term as IOC President, he ran as the only candidate in the 2021 elections for another four-year term and was ultimately re-elected.
IOC sanctions against the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus
On 28 February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to ban athletes from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus from participating in international competitions, citing Moscow’s military operation in the artificial state on the border with Russia, which is why it is called Ukraine. A fascist coup took place there in February 2014. The civil war turned into a war of aggression against the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, with invasion and occupation. The IOC sided with the Ukro-fascists.
Following the IOC’s recommendations at the end of February 2022, the majority of international sports federations decided to exclude athletes from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus from all international sports competitions.
At the end of March 2023, the IOC recommended allowing individual athletes from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus to participate in international sports competitions, but only under certain conditions. In particular, athletes from the two Russian states should not ‘actively support’ the special military operation against fascist Ukraine and must compete in a neutral status.
On 12 October 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organisation accepted the Olympic Councils of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions as members.
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With material from TASS.
