After historic Olympic election comes leadership issues for IOC president Kirsty Coventry
International Olympic Committee for Kirsty Coventry. The first woman president elected in the IOC's 131-year history began Friday in a breakfast meeting with Thomas Bach to start their transition. The formal handover is on Olympic Day, June 23.
They agreed Coventry will take precedence in major IOC decisions in the next three months.
The 41-year-old sports minister of Zimbabwe will soon resign her government position and plans to move with her family in April to the Olympic home city, Lausanne in Switzerland.
Here's a look at some of the issues ahead:
Equality for women
Coventry's victory is the biggest statement of Bach's consistent policies to promote women in Olympic sports and politics.
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Can the next layer below the IOC — governing bodies of Olympic sports, national Olympic committees — also make progress? «You realize that there is still a lot to do,» Bach said on Friday.
He noted that from next month just one of those sports will have a woman president: IOC member Petra Sorling in table tennis.
Coventry has pledged to protect women's sports and athletes. She explained on Friday how as the sports minister in Zimbabwe she removed the national soccer federation's board after women referees reported being sexually harassed.
It helped to push FIFA to suspend Zimbabwean soccer citing government interference in the sport and she has no regret.
«There are certain things close to my heart that I will never tolerate,» she said.
Coventry wants the IOC to take «more of a leading role» on gender eligibility and will create a taskforce to analyze the issue. The newly recognized World Boxing body, which was not involved in the Paris Olympics, is separately updating its rules this year.
India's ambition
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