History with capital letters in the Olympic movement. First woman. First African. And, incidentally, the youngest person always to direct the IOC. The sign of the times rose as never before in the elections of an organism traditionally full of naphthalin, “lords” and misunderstood abolengo. But President Coventry not only merits for her status as a woman, African or young. Also, and that is very important, it is a former number who hung seven Olympic medals, two of them gold. A vocation athlete who knows the games, who sacrificed himself for them, who enjoyed them and where he triumphed. A leader for international sport that comes from one of the specialties, such as swimming, which have always had in Olympism. A champion who has ascended quickly in the leadership ranks.
Thomas Bach and Kirsty Coventry
With this choice a circle is closed that is in the antipodes of what the illustrious Baron Pierre de Coubertin declared. “Women in games are not very interesting, antistnetic and inappropriate,” said the promoter of the Olympism of the modern era and first president of the IOC.
The steps that are being taken are giant, and those who will come
From that disastrous macho allegation, faithful to his time, it is possible to say it, to some joint games. Those of Paris, last summer, were the first in which the number of men and women participating was exactly the same: 5,250. A significant fact, as was that the female marathon was played on the last day of the Parisian event, usually a date reserved for the male test.
There is a long way to go, also in the field of sport. Women in much of the disciplines do not compete with the same resources, with the same facilities or with the same rights as men. But the steps that are being taken are giant. Coventry has conquered another top. And those that, fortunately, will come.
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