What does NRC think | New IOC chairman in men’s stronghold remains vulnerable

For the first time in 131 years, a woman was chosen last week as chairman of the International Olympic Committee. The 41-year-old Zimbabwean former Zwemster Kirsty Coventry can lead the most important sports organization in the world over the next eight years. Among other things, she left competitor Sebastian Coe – two -time Olympic champion in the 1,500 meters and former Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons – far behind. In fact, she only needed one voting round to get 49 out of 109 IOC members behind her. Her emotional reaction showed that she could hardly believe it herself. « As a young girl I never expected that I would ever be here, » she said.

Advocators of (gender) equality and inclusion often responded. « That is something to make a balloon take off, » said feminist icon Hedy d’Ancona NRC. She mentioned The appointment of a woman « more than symbolic » because of the visibility of the function. Daphne Koster, Ajax manager Women’s Football spoke of « a powerful signal for women and men worldwide that something should be broken when it comes to gender equality. »

The idea is that a woman helps to the top sexuals. As it Old Boys Network plays each other the ball. But the number of top women with large, influential organizations such as the IOC is small. And so Coventry will be under a magnifying glass in the coming years – more than its male predecessors.

That, combined with the high expectations of advocates of equality, makes her vulnerable. And that is not a nice starting position if you are dealing with a number of explosive files as chairman: the admission requirements for transgender and intersex athletes, the impact of climate change on the Olympic Summer and Winter Games, dealing with agressor Russia and the US President Trump, host in 2028.

You can already hear that Coventry owes her appointment to the fact that Thomas Bach, the current IOC chairman, embraced her candidacy. Under his twelve-year chairmanship, he has appointed more than half of the current IOC members, and so Coventry would owe all those voters to hém, not to its thorough plans, impressive swimming career (seven Olympic medals) or good conversations with IOC members in recent months.

Honesty concludes that Coventry was conducting a fairly colorless campaign and does not appear in principle. That’s how she said in NRC That she is against the participation of transgender athletes at the Games, because they want to make women’s sport safe and honest, but did not exclude them that the rules will be relaxed in the long term « if the debate about » unfair sport « is less heated ». She also did not want to answer the question of whether it is right that Trump wants to reject visa applications from Trans athletes who want to participate in the Games in LA – while she wants to keep those athletes in women’s top sport.

As Minister of Sport in Zimbabwe, Coventry is part of a cabinet of which some members are on the American sanction list for corruption and human rights violations, including President Emmerson Mnangagwa. That is the only way to make sport safer and fairer, she said, from within. A sign of naivety, something you can cost in turbulent times.

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