Last Thursday Lausanian was covered by a huge enigma, as extensive and misty as Lake Leman in winter. The Olympic conclave held in Greek lands had thrown such a rapid, so devastating outcome, that, after days, it is still surprising in the Swiss city … The ease with which former Kirsty Coventry, a successful supporter, Minister of Sports of Zimbabue, crushed all her rivals in the first vote and was erected as the new (and first in history) president of the International Olympic Committee. His choice entered the possible and was not an extraordinary surprise. The forcefulness of the result, with more than double votes than Samaranch Junior (second) and several pools away from the other five candidates, did raise many eyebrows.
What are the keys to Coventry’s choice? What has the ease of your victory cemented? Who really represents? On the one hand, the new president focused her campaign on strengthening women as a sports directive and also made clear their position that transgender women could compete in the women’s category. Africanism was another of its buzas, always with the idea that a city on its continent can be one day host of an Olympic Games.
The thunderous appearance of the former Zimbabue, with seven Olympic medals behind her, has been very celebrated internationally, especially by athletes. Carlota Castrejana, Olympic in athletics and basketball and in turn Sports Directive, highlights that «Coventry has a powerful and current profile, which will allow him to lead a movement that has to guide and give light to the new challenges of sport. You will know how to adapt your star product to the new generations. La Riojana, from Atlanta, where he resides, adds: «It has an undeniable capacity, backed by a meteoric career and an overwhelming victory in the elections. It will not be an easy path, but Top, I bet on it ».
Javier Moracho, an ex -champion from Europe of athletics and always linked to the organizational structures of the sport, believes that “Coventry’s choice has been like the arrival of fresh and renovating air to the International Olympic Committee.” «On the end of a woman, and also, young, presides over the IOC. It was time! ” Indicates the Valleista Oscense, very satisfied with the choice.
María Peláez, exnadora, European champion in 200 meters butterfly in 1997, also supports the new president. “I hope that your experience as a athlete of the highest level and youth will bring a vision of the Games and the fresh and interesting Olympic movement, fleeing eccentricities and feeding egos,” he says. «Coventry, as in swimming, has achieved multiple achievements in a single ‘competition’. Of the success achieved (African, young and wife) the most remarkable globally is that it breaks a glass roof again. But I think the support achieved in a first round will be almost so important. At a time of extremes, the stability that this consensus can give is a rarity ».
Feminism and Africanism apart, there is another way, much simpler, to interpret Coventry’s victory. The candidacy of the African, clearly labeled as an official and continuity, was launched from the first moment by Thomas Bach, the president who will cease in office on June 23. His victory, at first and without opposition, would reflect the strict control that the German leader has been able to maintain on the members of the IOC (a large majority were appointed directly by Bach during his mandate) to preserve his power and ensure the continuity of his line of work. Change so that everything remains the same.
There is a phrase that has betrayed Thomas Bach. Last Thursday, as soon as the result of the first vote was known (no more rounds were necessary), they asked the outgoing president how he valued the result. “I feel relieved,” was his answer, reflecting a state of anxiety about the uncertainty of the vote and implying that another president’s election would not have been to his liking. The great defeated (he received the humiliating figure of eight support votes against the 49 of Coventry) was the Englishman Sebastian Coe, whose initiative to award economic awards to athletes in the games without having consulted the IOC ended up taking its toll. Leaving the pot is not well seen in Lausana.
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