Tangible move towards gender parity in sports administration a promising start

The monumental import of Kirsty Coventry's election as International Olympic Committee (IOC) president has just set off its first ripples.

- Sharda Ugra

In Coventry's ascent, women in sport everywhere — athletes, coaches, officials, management executives, administrators, technical officials — see the creation of a space for their tribe that, no matter what, cannot be uncreated. For decades, women were treated as invisible on the field of play first and more recently, in sporting boardrooms. But today, with this sudden crack of lightning, no more.

The very induction of women into the IOC first took place in 1981, less than fifty years ago. The first woman on the IOC's Board was American Anita DeFrantz in 1992. Today, only two of the 30 international federations (IFs) under the IOC Summer Olympics umbrella have female presidents. Both are Swedes, Annika Sorenstam for golf and Petra Sorling for table tennis.

The only other two women who head ruling IFs connected to the Olympics as associate members are Zena Woolridge from squash and Regula Meier from ski mountaineering.

Coventry, though, is not just the fifth woman at the top of an international sporting organization. She is at the very top of the tree. In the most powerful sporting job on the planet, heading an organization that has more members (206) than the United Nations (193). Closer to LA2028, all 37 summer and winter Olympic IF bosses will look to President Coventry for direction.

She was asked about dealing with US President Donald Trump and said with a smile, "I have been dealing with, let's say, difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old."