With Kirsty Coventry – the first woman from Africa to hold this post – to head the IOC, it raises certain hopes that the IOC will gradually cease to be an instrument of the Western political establishment.

The appointment of Kirsty Coventry, a two-time Olympic champion and seven-time world champion in swimming, who has been the Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation of the Republic of Zimbabwe since 2018, to the post of President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has brought some optimism that this structure will begin to move away from the politicisation of international sports under the influence of Western political elites and that Russia and Belarus will return to all major international competitions.

The representative from Africa

Although she has Western European roots, Kirsty Coventry is a proud representative of her country of birth, Zimbabwe, and the African continent as a whole. She is a swimmer and politician, international Olympic movement activist, two-time Olympic champion, seven-time world champion, 15-time winner of the African Games, multiple world record holder. Since 2018, she has been the head of the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation of Zimbabwe after being appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

In addition to her remarkable sports career, Kirsty Coventry is also a representative of the white minority of European origin in the Republic of Zimbabwe, and if for the vast majority of her fellow citizens she is perhaps the greatest representative of Zimbabwean sports, for a certain number of radical representatives of the country’s white minority (mostly of British origin and who are in opposition to the government of Zimbabwe because they dreamed of maintaining their dominance over the country) Kirsty Coventry is perceived rather negatively. This lack of acceptance is due to the fact that she has always remained loyal to the country of her birth and citizenship, and even devoted her service to it as a politician after her sports career ended.

On a larger, global scale, being the first ever African woman to head the IOC also brings hope for the supporters of a multipolar world. So far, these hopes are, naturally, cautious. Kirsty Coventry has already stated that she is against the exclusion of countries from participating in the Olympic Games due to military conflicts and will begin negotiations on Russia’s return to the Olympic Games. At the same time, she recalled that there are also armed conflicts on her country’s continent, Africa.

Prospects

This remark reflects the truth. Until now, the very representatives of the Western regimes that politicised international sports have not been able to properly explain why the crisis in Ukraine, which they themselves spent many years on creating, led to the exclusion of Russia and Belarus from a number of international sports competitions. Not everyone, though, knows that the numerous attacks by Westerners on Russian sports began long before the start of the Special Military Operation in 2022.

Representatives of the so-called Collective West also could not really explain why while Russian and Belarusian athletes were suspended, Israel, inhumanely bombing Palestine and Lebanon, continued to be represented at all major international competitions under the auspices of the IOC and not only.

In essence, the criminal actions of the former IOC head, the German Thomas Bach and his so-called administration under the command of Russophobic forces, killed everything that international sports and the Olympic movement could be associated with, even despite the politicisation of sports itself for many years. The demands that were made of Russian and Belarusian athletes, including the humiliating participation without a flag and anthem, were reminiscent of the fascist methods of Nazi Germany and the planetary minority in another era.

As for the prospects, in any case, it is still too early to say whether Kirsty Coventry will live up to the expectations not only of Russian and Belarusian athletes and fans, but also of the global non-Western majority of humanity, given that the interests of the Western planetary minority in the IOC are still strongly represented. But there are certainly some hopes. Besides the fact that Kirsty Coventry is a citizen of Zimbabwe, one of Russia’s main African allies, the modern world simply will not tolerate further hypocrisy and blatant lies from those who will never be able to claim exclusivity. Another world, another era.

Mikhail Gamandiy-Egorov, entrepreneur, political observer, and expert on Africa and the Middle East. Courtesy

https://journal-neo.su/2025/03/26/will-the-ioc-change-under-new-leadership/