New Olympic President Elected As Britain's Lord Seb Coe Discovers Fate | World Newsnews24 | News 24
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New Olympic president elected as Britain’s Lord Seb Coe discovers fate | World Newsnews24

A new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been elected.

Kirsty Coventry, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and Zimbabwe sports minister, has become the first woman to be elected to the position.

Britain’s Lord Sebastian Coe didn’t win the election he entered as an outsider.

The peer went up against rivals more favoured by the IOC establishment and stood out from the field with some of his policies – including a blanket ban on transgender women competing in women’s sports.

The election almost entirely took place in the shadows in a Conclave-style process that gives the winner an eight-year mandate.

The final vote was conducted in the luxury resort of Costa Navarino, in Greece, and confirmed the IOC’s 10th leader in its 131-year history.

Among the issues the winner will have to deal with include navigating a smooth path between politics and sport in the 2028 US summer games, and picking a host for the 2036 competition too.

Previous IOC president Thomas Bach formally leaves office on Olympic Day, 23 June, having served a maximum of 12 years in office.

He will pass on a financially secure IOC, on track to earn more than $8bn (£6.2bn) at the LA 2028 games.

One of his signature policies has been gender parity with equal quotas of male and female athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics and giving an improved balance of female members in the IOC and on the executive board he chairs.

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