Next Gen IOC: Coventry On the Road, Bach Farewells
By Ed Hula
Incoming IOC president Kirsty Coventry is a woman in motion as she travels the globe before taking office in June.
Brisbane is the port of call this week. She will hand the torch, so to speak, to Philippines IOC member Mikaela Jaworski, the new chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2032 Olympics. Coventry chaired the group until her election as IOC president in March, leading her to request current IOC president Thomas Bach to name a new chair ahead of the meeting this week.
Jaworski, 51, has been an IOC member since 2013, the same class as Coventry. A TV presenter, she is involved with educational media projects in the Philippines. She has served on past coordination commissions and is one of 15 members on the EB. In her days of competitive sport, Jaworski represented the Philippines as an equestrian. She trained in Queensland so well knows Brisbane already.
The meeting in Brisbane will include current IOC president Thomas Bach, obviously making his final trip to Oz in that title. He last visited in 2022, the year the Queensland capital was awarded the Games.
Bach has been at Coventry’s side in the past month as she transitions into the IOC leadership. In Kuwait earlier this month she made her first speech as IOC president-elect to the genera; assembly of the Olympic Council of Asia.
“As I begin my journey as IOC President, my first priority is to listen. I want to hear from you – from your NOCs, from your athletes – about what you need, what you expect, and how you see your role in shaping the future of our Olympic Movement,” Coventry told the 45-member OCA.
Notable from the Kuwait event was a sidelines meeting with the IOC leaders and Dr. Wali Rahimi, president of the Afghanistan National Olympic Committee. Also there was Samira Asghari, IOC member in Afghanistan. While a symbolic team of six athletes from the nation were accredited to Paris 2024, three men, three women. The three women were selected by the IOC and none of them lived in Afghanistan as the Taliban rulers refuse to allow women in sport. No government officials were permiited to attend Paris by IOC order.
Rahimi admitted that “major challenges” face sport in Afghanistan. Coventry will be on the front lines of meeting that challenge with the LA28 Games approaching. Also looming early in her mandate will be the difficult situation of Russia and the IOC. With its national Olympic committee suspended over the Ukraine war, Russia’s athletes are soon to be caught in the tangle of rules regarding whether they can qualify for the Milan/Cortina games next February or Los Angeles in 2028.
Senegal Stop for Coventry
Closer to her home in Zimbabwe, Coventry made it to Dakar this month to hand off her post chairing the coordination commission for the 2026 Youth Olympic Games. The job now falls to Kenya rugby sevens star Humphrey Kayange, named by the IOC president this month. A member of the IOC athletes commission, he competed at the 2016 Games. The 42-year-old is a chemist by education and works in the Kenya Bureau of Standards.
Both Kayange and Jaworski are among the fresh voices and personalities expected to bloom on the IOC in the years ahead. Dozens of members who now have served under four IOC presidents dating back to the 1980s, will be leaving the IOC through retirement in the next decade. Coventry will have the say-so on who joins this new wave of influence at the IOC. Her successor may be one of them.
Bach Farewelled in Guam
Thr IOC president stopped in Guam on the way to Brisbane for good byes from members of the Oceania National Olympic Committees assembly in Apia. Bach told delegates from the 17 nations in the region that ” “Every visit to Oceania is a personal highlight for me. I am really privileged that I have been welcomed by you so many times. I enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. Perhaps it is the absence of suits and ties in the tropics that appeals.
Coventry did not make the trek to Guam, with Bach urging the NOC leaders to extend their support to the new IOC president.
“Throughout all these years, I have been fortunate to experience your unity, your community spirit, your solidarity and your friendship first hand. We all share our commitment and passion for our beloved Olympic Movement. We all want to see it shining even brighter in the future. This is why today I ask you to extend this same spirit and support to my successor, the IOC President-elect, Mrs Kirsty Coventry,” he said in remarks to the assembly.
Outgoing ONOC president Robin Mitchell was honored for his long service to the region and as an IOC member. Bach presented him with the IOC President’s trophy. Mitchell’s successor as ONOC president will be IOC Member Baklai Temengil. She is secretary general of the Palau NOC. Temengil becomes the first woman to lead one of the five continental associations representing the 206 NOCs.
Bach, Coates Honored in Japan
IOC President Thomas Bach and retired IOC member John Coates were awarded the Order of the Rising Sun in a ceremony this month in Japan. The honors were in recognition of the work of the two men om the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, postponed by one year due to the Covid pandemic.
Coates, who led the IOC commission for Tokyo, retired from the IOC in 2024. He made countless trips between Sydney and Tokyo in the seven years of prep for the Games. Coates reports he’s well and will be in Brisbane this week and then on to Lausanne for his role as president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Weitten by Ed Hula