Kirsty Coventry elected as first female IOC President and the first from Africa

Kirsty Coventry has been elected as the tenth president of the International Olympic Committee. She will be the first woman in this role and also the first person from Africa (there have only been nine presidents before since 1894, and all of them except one were from Europe). She was elected by absolute majority on the first round of the process, so there was no need to do other rounds eliminating candidates, as she received 49 votes from the 97 total possible votes. The only other candidate (there were seven in total) with more than 8 votes was the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Coventry is the Zimbabwean Minister of Sports. Before all of that, she was an Olympic champion in swimming in 2004 and 2008. "The young girl who first started swimming in Zimbabwe all those years ago could never have dreamt of this moment", said after being elected. "Glass ceilings have been shattered today, and I am fully aware of my responsibilities as a role model", said acknowledging she is the first woman and first African to be in such an important position.

Coventry will serve for eight years, with the possibility of an additional four-year term. She will replace exiting president Thomas Bach on June 23. This week's session in Greece also explored other topics, including the reapproval of boxing as a sporting event in Los Angeles 2028, with World Boxing replacing IBA as the International Federation in charge for these events.