Kirsty Coventry Resigns as Zimbabwe's Sports Minister After Historic IOC Election
Kirsty Coventry Resigns as Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister After Historic IOC Election
Kirsty Coventry has resigned from her post as Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation of Zimbabwe after being elected the 10th President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Coventry made history when she was elected the first African and woman President of the IOC on Thursday 20 March 2025. The 41-year-old Zimbabwean was chosen in a secret ballot of seven candidates at the 114th IOC Session held in Costa Navarino, Greece for an eight-year term of office.
Kirsty Coventry Resigns as Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister
Kirsty Coventry confirmed her plans to relocate to Lausanne on a full-time basis. She revealed that she’ll have a discussion with President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the coming days to discuss her resignation as she can’t serve as both Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister and the IOC President.
When asked if she plans to relocate to Lausanne, Coventry responded:
“Yes, I do. Right now I wanna go and thank everybody for supporting me and really let this sink in and have a little bit of an embrace and a hug. But I will have the conversation with my President of Zimbabwe. There’s no way to do both.”
She disclosed that President Mnangagwa was aware of her plans and fully supported her campaign to become IOC President.
“They knew and they were very supportive of me running in this campaign. I believe that while they may be sad to say goodbye, they are also really proud that we’ll be moving into another chapter,” Coventry added.
