Kirsty Coventry was elected as the new president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday. Coventry became the first woman to be chosen for the global sports post and also the first African to be named the president of the IOC.

Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday and became the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in world sports. "It is a signal that we are truly global," the Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist said.

The next president of the International Olympic Committee is a former Zimbabwe swimmer who is Africa’s most decorated Olympian and a minister in a government often accused of oppressing political opposition.