Hula Sport Communications
12, Jun
2025
Donald Trump, Olympics for Africa, Gender in Sport : Challenges, Opportunies for New IOC President

By Ed Hula

Updated 6/16/25

The new president of the International Olympic Committee hasn’t said much yet about what she plans to do when she takes over June 23. But the anticipation for Kirsty Coventry is high: at 42 she is the youngest IOC president in 100 years, the first African and the first woman to lead the organization.

She takes over from her mentor Thomas Bach, who leaves the IOC in good shape with no immediate crises to solve. But there are plenty of challenges and opportunities ahead that will benefit from the energy of a more youthful president and the leadership group she’s now forming.

Coventry as travelled widely since her election in March, often along with Bach, introducing the new president to organizations like the Olympic Council of Asia or the organizers of the 2032 Games in Brisbane. Last week it was Rome where Conventry and Bach met with the leaders of the Italian government ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan/Cortina.

This week Coventry will hold her first formal briefing for the media, just days before the installation ceremony June 23 in Lausanne. However, the virtual event will be limited to personal questions, not on policy matters. Those questions will have to wait until she formally takes office next week when she presides over her first meeting of the Executive Board.

While we wait for her thoughts about running the IOC, here’s a list of the opportunities and challenges ahead for IOC President Coventry.

Coventry with Bach in Rome with Italian leaders.

#1  Building Unity for the IOC – Coventry’s first round election in March came by a margin of one vote over the rest of the field, 49 votes. Missing that tally  could have turned the election into a new contest. Some say second-place finisher Juan Antonio Samaranch would have prevailed, although recent history suggests otherwise. The two other IOC presidents elected in the 21st Century — Bach in 2013 and predecessor Jacques Rogge in 2001, won their majorities on the second ballot after leading in the first round.

All six defeated candidates remain on the IOC for a number of years, but there’s no evidence of any bad blood or serious dissent among the ranks of the IOC. Samaranch is also a member of the executive board for another year. All of the candidates called for a more open and deliberative IOC, so it will be interesting to see whether Coventry makes any change to the rubber stamp style of oversight that the IOC now seems to follow.

#2  Shape Her Vision – In her campaign, Coventry offered no big changes in policy or practice at the IOC. She says she’s listening to her colleagues and others with an interest in the Olympics before making any pronouncements. Elected with tacit support from Bach, Coventry offers continuity of his leadership, at least at the outset of her eight-year mandate.

Still, she will soon take office and it will be time to tell the world her plans for the IOC, short and long term. The IOC Session set for February 2026 in Milan will be the first public test for her leadership style.  Coventry chairs her first IOC Executive Board and holds her first briefing for the media as president at the end of the IOC meeting a couple of days after June 23 installation.

Within days of becoming president in 2013, Bach launched his Olympic Agenda 2020 reform program. The massive review of the way the Games are conducted, financed and administered served as a guidepost for Bach. No word on whether Coventry continues Olympic Agenda or devises some other way to regularly review operations of the enterprise.

#3 Getting To Know You – The first formal meeting between the new IOC president and U.S. President Donald Trump is not yet on the calendar. But the president often says he’s looking forward to Los Angeles in 2028, so a White House invite is in order before long.

It will be interesting to see the chemistry between Coventry and Trump, should the press be invited to the Oval Office. Trump loves to have sports figures revel in the gilded office. FIFA impresario Gianni Infantino has been at the White House a couple of times ahead of next year’s World Cup, with the two of them forming a sort of bromance. Infantino lives most of the time in South Florida, about 90 miles south Mar A Lago.

I’m not convinced the Coventry-Trump relationship will reach the same bonhomie. Indeed, Trump can be imperious, dismissive and condescending. But he does have dreams of basking in the glory of the spectacle in three years, so that may help moderate his cantankerous side. After all, why make trouble with your seatmate for the opening ceremony?

Among the issues Coventry and Trump might discuss are the visa bans or restrictions on 19 nations. Even though the U.S. says the ban on travel won’t apply to Olympians, there’s always some complication.

Coventry can turn to Bach for advice on meeting Trump. In June 2017, Bach – along with a U.S. delegation that included IOC members Larry Probst and Anita DeFrantz – met with Trump in the Oval Office. Trump by all accounts was distracted and uninformed, asking at one point “which one of you is an IOC member?”


The meeting lasted but 10 minutes but for Bach was apparently an unsettling encounter. He was reportedly heard on a phone call following the meeting saying something like “God help us”. No press was present for the meeting and the White House media office never prepared a readout. IOC spokesman Mark Adams was less than fulsome with his assessment of how things went down.

“President Trump confirmed his support for the L.A. candidature,” he said at the time.

Coventry will have to pay attention to relations with the U.S. well past Los Angeles as Salt Lake City will reprise hosting the winter Olympics in 2034. While there is not any doubt about the Utah capital being ready, the award of the Games came on the condition that officials in Utah would help overturn the federal law that allows for investigators to question and detain international sports officials and athletes over suspicions of doping or other corruption. The codicil to the Salt Lake City agreement gives the IOC escape clause should problems arise.

Thomas Bach steps down June 23, Kirsty Coventry will take over.

#4  A Russian Return – It is hard to imagine Russia’s war against Ukraine lasting beyond the next 12 years of a Coventry presidency. Taking an optimistic view that it be over, sooner or later, the IOC will need to decide the terms of the return of the Russian Olympic Committee. It has been suspended since 2018 and its athletes have missed the Olympics since 2016. The Russian flag is failed to fly at the games in Rio, Tokyo, Paris and possibly Los Angeles in 2028. A Russian hockey team as yet to compete at the Winter Games since Sochi in 2014 . It’s been blocked again for Milan 2026 .

That amounts to at least one generation of athletes largely left on the sidelines of the Olympics. It also means new leaders for Russian sport who may not be well-acquainted with the new, Gen Z style IOC. Milan/Cortina seems unlikely to bring Russia back, but LA 28 may be possible. Brisbane 2032 could be the Games for the Russian comeback, which would give Coventry and crew plenty of time to plan on how it will happen.

#5  2036 and 2040 Olympics – Among the most intriguing decisions coming for the IOC in the Kirsty Coventry era will be where to bring the summer Games in 2036 and 2040.

The list of interested countries already includes Spain, Germany, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and South Africa.

Coventry, who hails from Zimbabwe, could face great pressures to accomplish what’s been talked about for generations now: an Olympics in Africa. Never before has the time been so ripe for a bid from the continent.  A successful Youth Olympic Games next year in Dakar will be seen as a prelude. Until her election in March, Coventry chaired the IOC coordination commission for Dakar, so she has good reason to pay close attention to success in 2026.

The destiny of an African Olympic bid, however, collides with the ambitions of India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.  Not just on a global stage, but also within the IOC. One of world’s wealthiest women, Nita Ambani, has ten years left on her term as an IOC member in India. She is a fierce supporter of India’s Olympic aspirations, which now depend on realistic plans for an Indian Games and an absence of armed conflict with Pakistan. If 2036 is too early for India, then 2040 might be an option. It is possible we could see a twin awarding, Africa for 2036 and India or Qatar for 2040, as happened with Paris and Los Angeles.

The Saudi bid may be an outlier. The kingdom has not held the same scale and frequency of international sports events as have Qatar. There is little doubt that Saudi Arabia could finance an Olympics but whether it happens later than sooner might be more likely. Princess Reema bint Banda al Saud is one of the advocates for her country hosting international sporting events. She is an IOC member as well as the ambassador of the kingdom to the United States.

Qatar’s international might could play a hand in the chances of Doha for one of the two open Games.IOC member Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is also the head of state. Tamim is an inobtrusive member who has spoken little at the IOC Sessions he has attended for 25 years. But as the sovereign of a wealthy nation that has outsized influence on the world stage, his presence is felt behind the scenes.  A perennial bidder for the Games 20 years ago, Qatar’s sports resume has expanded over the decades. Coventry and Emir Tamim have another 20+ years to go as fellow IOC members, so maybe they will work out a way to bring Olympics to the Middle East — just not for 2036. Coventry could make sure Africa goes first.

#6  The IOC President Is a Mother – Not only is Coventry the first woman to lead an international sports organization at the level of the IOC, she brings a parent’s perspective as the mother of two young girls, an infant and a seven-year-old.

While people around the globe groan about how the Olympics need to cultivate new generations of sports fans and competitors, the household of the IOC president should give her a perspective on how best to do that. Expect her story to be the focus of interest from the world.  She is the too-rare Olympic champion from Africa who also happens to break the IOC glass ceiling while caring for a pair of young daughters. The older one will be a teenager during the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.

Coventry was welcomed by the IOC staff just days after her victory March 20.

#7  Gender Identity in Sport – The controversy over Tunisian boxer Imane is just one question of many to come regarding who is a male and who is a female.

Coventry’s fresh perspective as a woman and as an athlete will be crucial.  With LA 28 on the horizon, the integrity of women’s sport is a volatile issue. How the IOC under Coventry deals with the politics and science of gender standards will get much scrutiny in the U.S., especially as Los Angeles approaches. Despite only a small number of clashes over gender in sport, members of the U.S. Congress are demanding answers on what is a hot button issue for many constituents.

The uproar over Khelif in Paris came under the watch of an IOC task force formed when the International Boxing Association was suspended for a range of issues involving governance, finance and ethics. Nonetheless the IBA says it standards would have prevented Khelif from competing  in Paris, contending the IOC brought the controversy by overlooking IBA’s protocol.

In the year since Paris, a new federation has been recognized that meets with IOC approval, World Boxing. The newly recognized Federation will take charge now of the competition in Los Angeles. In just in the past month Federation announced its policy for gender testing that mirrors that of the rival IBA. 

#8   New Sponsors – The IOC depends on the help of worldwide sponsors to help pay for the Olympics,  some $3 billion every four years. Coventry now joins the team selling the Olympic rings to some of the world’s leading firms. There’s been talk that the long-running TOP sponsorship operation should be replaced with another format. Coventry, as is customary with new IOC presidents, is expected to meet with leaders of the major sponsors such as Coca-Cola to hear what they say. Coke, the longest sponsor of the Olympic has a deal with the IOC until 2036.

#9  Act Against Corruption – Maintaining the integrity of an international sports movement that includes not just the IOC but also dozens of international federations and two hundred national Olympic committees is an ongoing issue. Divisive recent controversies involving the leadership of the modern pentathlon and table tennis federations, for example, do little to inspire trust in the way sport is administered. The IOC is continually dealing with contested NOC voting. The IOC Ethics Commission is seldom heard from, which could be a good thing. But as it’s been said, still waters run deep and there is likely a lot of activity we don’t hear about.

#10  Athlete Compensation, Anti Doping and WOA – As a one-time elite athlete, Kirsty Coventry knows the difficulty Olympians face in their quest for gold. Few of the 10,500 competitors at the Games have sponsors or other significant sources of income that allows them to train properly. It’s a seeming injustice given the relative wealth of those athletes who benefit from sponsors versus those who do not.

As an IOC president who not long ago experienced the toil and often slim rewards for elite athletes, Coventry could be a leading voice to bring athletes the support they need. This might even include cash prizes, a move supported by World Athletics president Seb Coe, one of her challengers for the presidency. For the first time, World Athletics awarded medal winners in Paris with cash prizes, a move not welcome by the IOC president Bach.

Doping issues remain a constant worry for athletes. The case of the Chinese swimmers who were absolved of taking a performance-enhancing drug for the heart may be over but the suspicions remain deep over the power of the World Anti-Doping Agency. The United States Anti-Doping Agency is a fierce critic of WADA, which receives about half of its funding from the IOC. The perspective that Coventry brings to the table will be crucial to moving forward with a fight against doping in sport that athletes deem credible.

One less obvious task that should be tackled early would be to resolve the question of “who’s boss?” at the World Olympians Association. The 40-year-old association is mired in a dispute with the IOC over the role of the WOA which purports to represent all Olympic athletes. The IOC has funded the organization since its inception but is said to ready to jettison the WOA, to which it contributed about $600,000 per year. Payments are believed to have been halted.

The IOC under Thomas Bach is said to be unhappy with the independent direction of the WOA. It’s now up to Coventry to decide on the next move.