Bach Gives IOC Baton To 'Best Of Hands'

Olympic champion and first female chief Coventry vows to use sport for change

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LAUSANNE - Kirsty Coventry became the most powerful person in sport on June 23 as she took over as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.

The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body and at 41, the youngest since Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.

Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who is also a fellow Olympic champion – he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.

Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was "in the best of hands" and that Coventry would bring "conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective" to the role.

Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.