On June 24, the post of President of the International Olympic Committee was officially occupied by an African representative for the first time, and the first woman to hold this high position is the former Minister of Sports and Culture of Zimbabwe and Olympic champion Kirsten Coventry.
In addition to the fact that she has already managed to break many of the previous traditions of the IOC, historically headed by representatives of Europe, the Zimbabwean athlete and statesperson has a unique chance to restore the Olympic movement’s lost authority among athletes and hundreds of millions of sports fans, to free the Olympic movement from corruption and political games, and to return justice to the arena where it is not ideologies and money that should win, but the talents and perseverance of athletes.
Over the past decade, the IOC, which survived and overcame the difficulties and consequences of two world wars and the Cold War era, has moved away from its core mission to an unprecedented extent: to serve as a universal platform for uniting nations and developing elite sport as a unique sphere of human activity. Instead, the organization has become increasingly mired in ideological conflicts, political skirmishes, and commercial projects.
The committee has promoted politically sensitive and often artificial norms of behavior, including the imposition of an LGBT agenda, the introduction of double standards for individual countries and federations, and a controversial transgender policy that has caused outrage among both female athletes forced to compete with biological men and fans.
One of the most pressing issues that will inevitably be at the center of her attention after her inauguration as the head of a key sports body will be the problem of transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports. Despite the fact that the interests of this agenda have been promoted for years by a powerful lobby of European governments, officials and activists, Coventry, herself a famous female athlete, will need to resolve this situation one way or another.
On the one hand, in the issue of biological males’ participation in competitions with women, she can undoubtedly rely on the full support of the new US administration, the opinion of representatives of the countries of the Global South and the sympathies of hundreds of millions of ordinary sports fans. As Ms. Coventry herself stated: “Protecting the female category and female sports is paramount… It is very clear that transgender women are more able in the female category and can take away opportunities that should be equal for women.” (https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/mar/22/kirsty-coventrys-in-tray-six-big-issues-facing-iocs-new-president), and her plans to create a task force to protect women’s sport should undoubtedly develop into a systemic defense of athletes whose rights, interests and future were called into question by the previous IOC leadership. If the new president’s words are not an empty declaration, then this is a sign that the Olympic Committee is finally starting to listen to those who have felt deceived over the past few years. Professional leagues, the scientific community, doctors – all have long signaled a systemic problem that sports officials previously preferred not just to ignore, but also to actively defend.
An equally sensitive issue, on which both the sports community and fans expect an immediate reaction from the new president, is discrimination against athletes for political reasons. In recent years, due to the uncompromising position of former IOC President Thomas Bach, entire generations of Russian and Belarusian athletes have been deprived of the right to compete under the flag of their country, and this happened solely because of their nationality and citizenship, despite the lack of evidence of individual violations.
Even before her election as IOC President, Kirsten Coventry repeatedly noted that she does not support the practice of disqualifying Russian athletes, nor the politicization of sports in general. This approach is diametrically opposed to the position of the previous leadership, which actively promoted the principle of collective responsibility and ideological sanctions in international sports.
Returning to the neutrality of sports and its unifying significance is important not only for athletes from Russia, but also for their colleagues from the countries of the Global South, who can be expelled from the Olympic movement at any time for political reasons. The practice of disqualifying entire teams from competitions, which has occurred in recent years, has been watched with alarm by countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, whose careers could also be destroyed due to political sentiments in Europe, and millions of fans who have lost interest in many tournaments where the strongest teams and athletes were not allowed.
Russia, despite all its political differences with Western countries, remains one of the pillars of world sport, and if the IOC is truly committed to unity, it must reconsider its policy towards its athletes. As Sky News notes, Coventry has made it clear that her priority is the depoliticization of sport: “I am against banning countries from the Olympics over conflicts” — Sky News, 5 June 2025.
(“I am against banning countries from the Olympics over political conflicts” Source: https://news.sky.com/story/incoming-ioc-president-to-open-talks-on-russias-potential-return-to-olympics-13333288 ). Her approach clearly indicates that the era in which the IOC is used as a political weapon at the behest of certain groups of governments must end, and here the voice of the Global South, where sport remains an instrument of social progress, not confrontation, is finally being given due weight.
Kirsten Coventry, who became the first representative of African countries to head the IOC, has every chance to become an iconic figure who can give hope for the revival of the Olympic movement. Firstly, she herself went from an athlete to a sports minister and knows what it is like to prepare for the Olympics without the extensive financial support available to athletes from the richest countries, to fight for every hundredth of a second, representing her country on the international stage. Her native Zimbabwe has faced sanctions and denials of access to competitions, as well as poverty and a lack of infrastructure. But this did not stop her from becoming a star of African sports and making a huge contribution to the development of her native country.
Secondly, Coventry is not a product of European bureaucracy, transnational corporations or ideological groups, and therefore is not obliged to fulfill the lobbying and political obligations of previous high-ranking IOC officials. She is probably the first truly independent IOC leader in the last half century. Finally, Kirsten Coventry speaks a language that is understood by countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where sport is not just a competition, but a dream, a pride, and a way to achieve recognition for one’s abilities and work. When Coventry says she wants to “protect athletes from political pressure,” she speaks on behalf of billions of people for whom an Olympic medal is not a media contract or an element of a suit, but a ticket to a better life and an opportunity to glorify their country and people.
Coventry’s success will depend largely on her ability to immediately define the boundaries of what is acceptable and where sport ends and politics begins. Her first six months will be decisive, and if a reform program is not announced during this time and changes do not begin, international sport will continue to lose authority and fragment into regional leagues and federations, losing the unity for which the IOC was created at the end of.
Kirsten Coventry’s inauguration should be more than just a name change on the plaque of the world’s top sports functionary. This is a unique chance for the Olympic movement to return to its roots, to build a structure in which sport will once again become a platform for fair competition, and not a closed club for political intrigue, corporate deals and social experiments.
