After months of suspense, the 10th president in the history of the IOC was elected Thursday in Costa Navarino, Greece, during the body's 144th session. And it's a female president, as Zimbabwean Kirsty Coventry was chosen. She becomes the first woman and the first African to lead the Olympic movement's governing body. A 41-year-old former swimmer, she was the only female candidate.

She boasts an impressive Olympic record, winning seven medals, including two gold, in five editions. She was the most decorated African athlete in Olympic history and is now the first president from the African candidate.

Minister of Sports in her country, she has experienced a meteoric rise within the IOC: joining in 2013, she chaired the Athletes' Commission, has sat on the Executive Board since 2018 and heads the Coordination Commission for the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.

Seven candidates to succeed Thomas Bach were on the starting line: in addition to Kirsty Coventry, the Frenchman David Lappartient , the British Sebastian Coe, head of World Athletics , the Spaniard Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., and the Japanese Morinari Watanabe, the Jordanian Prince Faisal al-Hussein and the British-Swede Johan Eliasch were candidates.

The election was held by secret ballot at 3:45 p.m. The 144th session resulted in a winner in a single round, announced Christophe De Kepper, the organization's director general. The broadcast was immediately cut off for about thirty minutes, before Thomas Bach himself took the floor to announce his successor.