Lord Coe’s bid to become president of the International Olympic Committee has ended in defeat, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe winning the vote.
Coe, 68, had said occupying the Olympic Movement’s highest office was a role he had been “training for for the best part of his life”, but a majority of IOC members gave their backing to Coventry in the first round of voting.
The 41-year-old becomes the first woman and first African in the post.
Lord Coe looked crushed as he emerged to face journalists after securing just eight votes in the IOC presidential election.
“It’s too early to start poring over the numbers,” Coe said, “but it’s clear that the athletes, and in particular the female athletes, voted for Kirsty in very great numbers.” Asked if it had been a clean fight, he shrugged: “It’s an election.”
Coventry’s victory at the IOC Session in Greece was announced by current president Thomas Bach, who will officially hand over the reins on June 24.
Coe’s campaign promises in vain
Victory for Coe would have been the peak of a stellar career in sports administration which followed great success in track and field, where he won Olympic gold in the 1500m at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games.
Coe led the bid and organising teams for the London 2012 Games and was the chairman of the British Olympic Association from 2012 to 2016. Since 2015 he has been president of World Athletics.
More recently, Coe chaired the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force, which has recommended Manchester United build a new 100,000-seat stadium as part of a wider project to regenerate the surrounding area.
He sought to reform the IOC from within, stating earlier in his campaign that “too much power is in the hands of too few people”.
He had also vowed to protect the female sport category.
“If you do not protect it, or you are in any way ambivalent about it for whatever reason, then it will not end well for women’s sport,” Coe said when he launched his campaign last year. “I come from a sport where that is absolutely sacrosanct.”
However, a majority of 49 out of the 97 IOC members eligible to vote selected Coventry to lead the organisation. She will serve an eight-year term as president.
Bach’s preferred candidate
Coventry said in her acceptance speech: “This is an extraordinary moment. As a nine-year-old girl, I never thought that I would be standing up here one day getting to give back to this incredible movement of ours.
“This is not just a huge honour, but it is a reminder of my commitment to every single one of you that I will lead this organisation with so much pride, with the values at the core, and I will make all of you very, very proud and hopefully extremely confident in the decision that you’ve taken today.”
Coventry, seen in some quarters as the preferred candidate of outgoing president Bach, won gold in the 200 metres backstroke at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, out of a total of seven medals she won overall.
She was elected to the IOC Athletes’ Commission and served from 2013 to 2021. She was then voted in as an individual IOC member in 2021.
04:58 PM GMT
Lord Coe reacts: ‘Female athletes, voted for Kirsty in great numbers’
Lord Coe looked crushed as he emerged to face journalists after securing just eight votes in the IOC presidential election. “Disappointing,” he said, having invested months of effort in travelling around the world trying to convince delegates of his credentials to bring genuine reform to a body that desperately needed it.
Kirsty Coventry, the president-elect, gained 49 of a possible 97 to achieve a first-round majority. “It’s too early to start poring over the numbers,” Coe said, “but it’s clear that the athletes, and in particular the female athletes, voted for Kirsty in very great numbers.” Asked if it had been a clean fight, he shrugged: “It’s an election.”
04:17 PM GMT
Bach denies Coventry was preferred candidate
“There was no preferred candidate,” says IOC president Thomas Bach of Kirsty Coventry’s win.
This is just not plausible: it is an open secret in Olympic circles that there has been concerted lobbying to secure her success.
04:00 PM GMT
‘Humiliating result for Coe’
There is no way of sugaring the pill: eight first-round votes for Sebastian Coe, out of a possible 97, is a humiliating result for a serial winner. And a sure sign that the cosy IOC coterie have little appetite for genuine change.
03:56 PM GMT
The vote breakdown
The vote count below shows that Lord Coe was a distant third in a two-horse race.
Valid votes: 97
Majority required: 49
Prince Feisal Al Hussein: 2
David Lappartient: 4
Johan Eliasch: 2
Juan Antonio Samarach Jr: 28
Kirsty Coventry: 49
Sebastian Coe: 8
Morinari Watanabe: 4
03:53 PM GMT
Who is the new IOC president?
Kirsty Coventry becomes the first woman, the first African and the youngest person to be elected as IOC president. The two-time Olympic swimming champion for Zimbabwe, 41, is also her country’s sports minister. However, there had been some disquiet about her role within a government accused of various humans rights abuse.
She is understood to have been the preferred candidate of outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach. As such, she was seen as continuity candidate, rather than a reformer.
03:44 PM GMT
Audible gasps
Some audible gasps as Kirsty Coventry announced as the 10th president of the International Olympic Committee. But widely expected ever since it was announced a winner had been found after only one round. A place was designated in the unsuccessful candidates’ mixed zone – aka “losers’ alley” – 30 minutes ago.
03:33 PM GMT
A bitter blow for Lord Coe
That must be a bitter blow for Lord Coe. His possible path to victory had been described a “narrow” – he was never likely to win with a big majority in the first round, rather the hope was he could stay in the race and pick up votes as the field got thinner – so to be defeated – both Coe and Samaranch Jnr – so decisively by Coventry in the first round really is something of a shock.
Did Bach’s backing make the difference for the Zimbabwean?
We hope to hear from Lord Coe – via Oliver Brown there in Greece – in the not-too-distant future.
03:29 PM GMT
Coventry speaks
Kirsty Coventry says it is a dream she could not have imagined as a little girl and vows to make everyone proud and says “now we have lots of work to do together”.
03:25 PM GMT
Kirsty Coventry has won!
The two-time Olympic swimming champion and Zimbabwean politician – and Thomas Bach’s preferred candidate – is the new IOC president. She is the first woman to hold the post.
Kirsty Coventry elected as the 10th – and first female – president of the International Olympic Committee in its 131-year history.
The former Zimbabwean swimmer, 41, was Thomas Bach's preferred candidate. A demonstration of Bach's absolute power over this organisation.
— Oliver Brown (@oliverbrown_tel) March 20, 2025
03:22 PM GMT
Must be soon now
I make that 30 minutes since they said they would be back with the result in 30 minutes...
03:16 PM GMT
Bizarre outcome, and still we wait....
It was expected to be the first of a series of quick elimination rounds with the candidate with the fewest votes dropping out each time – perhaps for as many as six rounds – until we got a winner of over 50 per cent of the total vote.
Instead the first round was held up by two technical issues, with a couple of members seemingly having difficulty casting their votes, then a little joke and laugh, then a long, long pause and we were told they’d be back in 30 minutes to announce the winner. Bizarre scenes.
03:11 PM GMT
About 10 minutes till we know...
NEW | IOC members have elected a new president in the first round of voting.
One of the 7 candidates secured an absolute majority
Announcement in 30 minutes' time pic.twitter.com/TBzsoDK14h— Dan Roan (@danroan) March 20, 2025
03:06 PM GMT
Rumours that Coventry has won
A rumour is that definitive first-round victory could mean a triumph for Kirsty Coventry, the 41-year-old former Zimbabwean former swimmer, president Thomas Bach’s preferred candidate. If true, it would be a demonstration of Bach’s absolute power over his organisation. There was hard lobbying on Coventry’s behalf in the closing stages of this election.
02:57 PM GMT
A stunning result
That is a pretty stunning result. Everyone was expecting a tight contest possibly going the full six rounds, but there has been a winner at the first time of asking, with one candidate taking more than half of the vote.
But, in line with what has been an opaque process since the start of campaigning, we are still in the dark and must wait for them to return – after the result undergoes a scrutiny process – to announce the winner.
Surely Samaranch Jnr and Coventry are the hot favourites now – Coe was expected to have more chance as the rounds progressed and he picked up more votes after eliminations.
02:53 PM GMT
Extraordinary scenes
Extraordinary. A result of the presidential election has been achieved after only one round, meaning one candidate has already secured a majority over all the other six combined. This election was expected to last five rounds at least.
02:52 PM GMT
A new president has been elected...
...but we don’t know who it is yet!
IOC director general Christophe De Kepper says they will announce it in 30 minutes, after the due scrutiny process... more ambient music!
02:50 PM GMT
Still waiting...
The votes area all in, so some dramatic music comes on and then... more ambient music... not sure why it’s taking so long to announce the result of the first round considering it’s all done electronically...
02:46 PM GMT
Technical problem
Voting is underway, some strange ambient music is being played, maybe to soothe any nerves, but there is technical problem... the vote is still open while someone fixes that...
02:42 PM GMT
The process...
... is being outlined: remember we need a majority vote for a winner, with the last-placed candidate eliminated after each vote, until we get a winner.
IOC members from countries who have candidates in the running cannot vote until that candidate has been eliminated.
The new president will start in the role in June.
No one can leave the room during the vote – if they do, their smart card will be nulled. Hope no one needs a comfort break.
02:40 PM GMT
Time to vote
Looks like the voting is about to begin as we’re being treated to a snazzy montage of Olympic moments rather than the holding screen... yep, the IOC members are back in and off we go...
02:34 PM GMT
‘Bach desperate for Coventry to win’
Be assured it will have been a highly tense coffee break for the IOC members, with plenty of last-minute lobbying. Thomas Bach might claim to have no influence on election proceedings but he is desperate for Kirsty Coventry to become his successor.
02:24 PM GMT
Six minutes to go (hopefully)...
If they are good with their time-keeping, the IOC members should be reappearing after their coffee break in about six minutes to being the process of electing their new leader to the position of most powerful person in global sport...
02:19 PM GMT
Lord Coe: We must protect the female category
As mentioned earlier, Lord Coe is by far the strongest candidate when it comes to defending the integrity of the female category in sports, amid the controversies over the participation of transgender athletes and athletes with differences in sex development (DSD) competing against women. He has been outspoken and has taken concrete action in his current role as leader of global athletics.
In this column for Telegraph Sport earlier this week, he outlined why it is a concern that is at the heart of his campaign.
'My vision for the IOC and for all Olympic Games moving forward is that both should support wider sporting integrity and excellence'
— Telegraph Sport (@TelegraphSport) March 18, 2025
02:04 PM GMT
Lord Coe’s main rivals for the top job
Kirsty Coventry
The two-time Olympic swimming champion for Zimbabwe is the only other former Olympian among the candidates. If successful, the 41-year-old, her country’s sports minister, would make history by becoming the first woman, the first African and the youngest person to hold the role. However, she has perhaps been somewhat tainted by her role within a government accused of various humans rights abuses, and as Oliver Brown points out, she has not always acted within the IOC as a fierce advocate for women – in contrast to Coe. She is understood to be the preferred candidate of outgoing president Thomas Bach, which might prove handy to her chances.
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jnr
The 65-year-old Spanish businessman, an IOC vice-president and member of the IOC’s executive board (like Coventry) is very much seen as a continuation candidate, a real insider, and a smooth operator. After all, his father (also named Juan Antonio Samaranch) was IOC president from 1980 to 2001. Our Oliver is also not a big fan of this fella, saying: “It seems unthinkable, though, that an organisation genuinely committed to change would acquiesce in putting two generations of the same family in charge within 25 years. This is a body crying out for reform, not a shameless display of nepotism.”
01:56 PM GMT
The candidates
Juan Antonio Samaranch Jnr and Kirsty Coventry – very much regarded as IOC insiders – are Coe’s main rivals.
Samaranch Jr is the son of Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was the IOC president from 1980 until 2001, and has also been one of four vice presidents under Bach. He has been on the IOC’s executive board since 2016. Coventry, who is a double Olympic gold medallist in swimming and the sports minister of Zimbabwe, is also on the executive board and widely believed to be Bach’s personal choice of successor. She would be the first female IOC president.
Also standing are international cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and the businessman Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski and Snowboard Federation. Eliasch served as the special representative for deforestation and clean energy in Gordon Brown’s UK Government and has dual Swedish and British nationality.
01:53 PM GMT
Lord Coe going for history
The significance of Lord Coe’s bid for the most powerful role in global sport can scarcely be overstated. Not since David Burghley, otherwise known as the Marquess of Exeter, ran unsuccessfully against Avery Brundage in 1964 has an Englishman even attempted to become IOC president. Burghley competed at the 1924 Paris Olympics and was depicted in the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire. In a neat piece of historical symmetry, he also presented the gold medal to Coe at the 1980 Moscow Games, where a then 23-year-old athlete won the first of his back-to-back 1500m titles.
01:51 PM GMT
Next up, the big one...
As you can see in the live stream above, the outgoing president Thomas Bach and other members have been laying the platitudes on thickly as they re-elect each other for fresh terms.
The presidential campaign is next up... after a coffee break that is... media are now being told they must leave the room and IOC members are being told to hand in their electronic devices.
They are having a 40-minutre break, the fella on the stage has just announced...
01:46 PM GMT
‘An absurdly secretive presidential election’
Our man on the ground (well, in the incredibly fancy IOC hotel) is chief sports writer Oliver Brown. He will be sending live updates soon, but in his preview piece this morning he described the process of choosing a new IOC leader as an “absurdly secretive presidential election, a ritual where opulence is prized over openness” and “a maddeningly opaque rigmarole” in which candidates have been barred from publishing campaign videos, arranging public meetings or taking part in public debates.
Oliver wrote: “Just ask Dick Pound, longstanding IOC member and former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency. ‘It makes the Vatican look like it’s open house,’ he says. And he is the election scrutineer.”
You can read his full piece here.
01:41 PM GMT
Who is voting?
The IOC membership is an eclectic group of 109 individuals which ranges from our own Princess Royal – herself an Olympian in 1976 – to Princess Nora of Lichtenstein, Prince Albert of Monaco and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, alongside sports administrators, former heads of state, business leaders and former athletes from across the world. And Michelle Yeoh, the Oscar-winning actress, for some reason.
As well as the Princess Royal, Coe and Eliasch, the only other British IOC member is Sir Hugh Robertson, who was the sports minister during London 2012 and is the former chair of the British Olympic Association.
01:33 PM GMT
What’s happening right now...
The election is the main event of the 144th IOC Session – a three-day shindig in an incredibly fancy hotel in the incredibly beautiful Costa Navarino region of Greece – and it was preceded by its own opening ceremony (I kid you not) 100km away, at Olympia.
At the moment, the IOC bigwigs are busy electing and re-electing members and vice-presidents, having spent the morning hearing progress updates from the organisers of the upcoming editions of the Summer, Winter and Youth Olympic Games.
They are due to take a well-deserved coffee break soon and then will reconvene for the big one.
In the meantime, we will provide some background and analysis here...
01:26 PM GMT
How does the election work?
The selection of the 10th IOC president will be decided by a secret ballot of the 109 IOC members (although just 106 are understood to be present).
To claim victory, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority – so more than 50 per cent – of the vote. If no one achieves that in the first round, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and so on, with further rounds staged until there is a winner. With seven candidates, that means we could go to six rounds until there are just two left standing.
It will be a secret electronic ballot, and in an effort to avoid any undue influence, members will have their phones and tablets taken away from them during the process.
Candidates had the chance to make a 15-minute presentation to fellow IOC members – held behind closed doors in Lausanne last month – but precious little is known about the voting intentions of each member.
The term of office is eight years, and can be renewed once, for a further four years.
01:21 PM GMT
Tightest race in IOC history
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the International Olympic Committee’s presidential election.
Great Britain’s Lord Coe is among three favourites for the leadership of the Olympic movement, but he faces stiff competition in what many experts are saying could be one of the tightest votes in the IOC’s 131-year history.
Lord Coe is aiming to become the first Briton elected to what is widely regarded as the most powerful job in global sport. As a double 1500m Olympic champion, head of the London 2012 Olympics and current president of World Athletics – arguably the most important of the Olympic sports – Lord Coe looks to be the best qualified on paper. But things are never that simple in Olympic circles.
His two main rivals, out of seven candidates in total, are Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Jnr – the favourite, whose father ran the IOC from 1980 to 2001 – and Kirsty Coventry, a two-time Olympic swimming champion from Zimbabwe, who would be the first female president of the IOC.
Like Lord Coe, who is a former Tory MP, Coventry has a background in politics – she was Zimbabwe’s sports minister and both she and Samaranch Jnr are seen as IOC insiders, having both been on the executive board.
Also standing are international cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, International Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe and British-Swedish businessman Johan Eliasch, who heads the International Ski and Snowboard Federation.
Despite his pedigree, Lord Coe, is seen as a bit of an outsider and certainly the one proposing the most radical reform. He has said he wants to make the election process and the IOC itself more transparent, talking of wanting to “open the windows”. He has been the most forthright on protecting the integrity of the female category in competition, amid the controversies over the participation of transgender athletes and athletes with differences in sex development (DSD) in sport.
Coe also put the cat among the pigeons with World Athletics’ decision to ban Russia from the Rio 2016 Olympics, while awarding £50,000 to every athletics gold medallist at Paris 2024 also caused some consternation.
Perhaps crucially, outgoing president Thomas Bach, has reportedly been lobbying for Coventry behind the scenes, which has caused some consternation as the IOC is supposedly big on political neutrality.
The voting is due to start at around 2pm (UK time).
