Costa Navarino, Greece | Kirsty Coventry was elected on Thursday (Friday AEDT) as the 10th president of the International Olympic Committee, becoming the first woman and the first African to hold the most powerful role in sports.

Coventry, 41, from Zimbabwe, was the only woman among the seven candidates in the months-long election battle and will be the committee’s youngest president since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, its co-founder in the late 19th century. As a swimmer, she holds seven of her country’s eight Olympic medals, including golds at the 2004 and 2008 Games.