The breakthrough of Coventry, the first female president of the International Olympic Committee, Coventry

Three days after officially taking office as president of the International Olympic Committee, Costy Coventry, the first post-80s leader in the history of the International Olympic Committee, ignited the "first fire" after taking office. She and IOC members jointly launched a seminar called "Suspending and Thinking" and reached a consensus: the Olympic bidding procedures and the qualification standards for women's events will be reviewed.

On June 23 local time, the handover ceremony of the president of the International Olympic Committee was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. Coventry, 41, solemnly took over the "golden key" symbolizing the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach and officially became the tenth president of the International Olympic Committee. The young woman from Africa is seen by Bach as the "reliable guide" of the current Olympic movement.

Coventry took the lead in showing his attitude of "pause and thinking". At the first online press conference as president, Coventry said that for both her and the Olympics as a whole, "it needs to be used to examine the status quo, discover opportunities, recognize challenges, and plan future responses." She revealed that the two consensuses were "overwhelmingly supported" by the International Olympic Committee members, especially suspending and reviewing the future host election process. "The committee members hope to participate more and discuss the opportunity to award the next host." The current Olympic bid rules were proposed during Bach's administration. In short, they changed from "application system" to "invitation system", and at the same time canceled the provision that "the right to host a certain Olympic Games must be determined 7 years in advance." "It is understandable to choose the invitation system when the Olympic bid craze has declined, but it is crucial to ensure that the invitation process is transparent and reasonable." Yi Jiandong, director of the Institute of Olympic and Global Sports Good Governance at Wenzhou University, told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network that that reform reduced the collective participation of IOC members to a certain extent and also caused internal controversy. Coventry's actions now "send a signal to make up for the problem."

In the view of the Olympic scholar and director of the "Key Research Base of Sports and Social Sciences of the General Administration of Sports of Beijing Sports University", the list of women's issues and Olympic bidding procedures as key priorities reflects the dual positioning of the new president's "take over" and "innovation". She told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network: "Coventry must first inherit the reform ideas during Bach's tenure, but as a young leader with a woman and non-European and American background, she needs to become an innovator even more."

Youth, women, non-European and American standards Signing

On March 20, local time, at the 144th Plenary Session of the International Olympic Committee held in Greece, Costy Coventry was elected with a high vote, becoming the first female president in the history of the International Olympic Committee and the first chairman from outside Europe and the United States. She said: "I seem to have broken the glass ceiling" - In the 130-year history of the International Olympic Committee, all nine presidents were men; the International Olympic Committee has 206 member states, with 9 consecutive presidents, only Avery Brendage from the United States, and the other 8 people are from Europe.

Coventry believes that this is a strong signal that the International Olympic Committee has developed into a truly global, diverse and open organization, and "we will continue to move forward on this road in the next eight years."

"Although she repeatedly called on everyone to forget these 'innate' names with biological and geopolitical attributes, and instead face her competitiveness equally from the perspective of 'acquired' sports achievements and governance capabilities, once the label is posted, it may be difficult to tear it off." Olympic scholar and professor at Fujian Normal University Wang Runbin said in the article "The Golden Girl's Card Table Game - Written on the Time of Coventry's succession as the IOC Chairman", "Coventry's personality characteristics, governing experience, and support behind it determine that she must be the heir to Bach's thoughts." During his 12 years in office, the International Olympic Committee under his leadership successively issued three programmatic documents, the "Olympic 2020 Agenda", "Olympic 2020+5 Agenda" and "Olympic AI Agenda", drawing a roadmap for the reform of the Olympic movement.

The five priorities proposed by Coventry in the election program: leveraging the power of sports; maximizing collaboration and participation; strengthening partnerships to achieve common development; advocating sustainable development; and improving credibility and trust, "is obviously a continuation of Bach's reform ideas." Wang Runbin believes that although the relevant summary report of the International Olympic Committee believes that the reform is going smoothly, under the current major changes unseen in a century, the difficult problems faced by the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic movement have not been reduced. "After Coventry took office, many challenges will undoubtedly magnify the weakness of power: if you want to wear your crown, you must bear the weight."

After Coventry was elected, many foreign media worried that she lacked sufficient political experience and management capabilities, and the corruption problem in her country Zimbabwe was also criticized by the outside world. But Yi Jiandong believes that none of these will change the style that the International Olympic Committee will present under her rule in the future. However, the real challenges that existed in the Olympic movement in the post-Bach era will indeed ruthlessly pounce on Coventry. Once the response is inappropriate, the label of "young, female, non-European and American" will become her "hard flaw" in the ups and downs of the turbulent situation.

Taking economics and politics as an example, Yi Jiandong revealed that as the revenue growth of the International Olympic Committee has stagnated, the dual pressure of adding new projects and administrative costs has made "difficulty in sharing money" a dead knot that Coventry is difficult to crack. The turmoil in the international politics and sports situation has also cast a shadow on its governance path. "Under the current political environment in the United States, the Rochenkov Act may be enforced, and it will directly interfere with the Olympic doping testing rights and add variables to the Los Angeles Olympics." In addition, the rise of "enhanced sports games" poses a challenge to the traditional Olympic system. "If Coventry cannot respond effectively, the authority of the International Olympic Committee will be further weakened.".

In Yi Jiandong's view, there are many questions waiting for Coventry to give an answer. For example, how to exert the irreplaceable magic of unity in the major changes in international political storms and military conflicts? How to ensure economic income under the situation where the IOC's own scale continues to expand and the economic demands of emerging sports institutions continue to grow, so as not to cause the risk of splitting due to income distribution? How to promote the sustainable development of the Olympic Winter Sports in the context of global climate change? How to handle the relationship with the Olympic committees and individual sports federations of various continents? How to ensure that young people’s attention and do not deviate from sports traditions, or even fall into the quagmire of capital manipulation?

"There are opportunities only when there are challenges, especially for an ambitious young woman." Huang Yaling believes that if Coventry adheres to the background of "diversity and inclusiveness", "sustainable innovation" as the core, and "youth-friendly" as the orientation, and focuses on promoting the institutionalization of sustainable standards, hard rules of gender equality, and normalization of technology empowerment in the future, and balances inheritance and innovation, it may not be impossible to break through the many challenges.

Coventry was a swimmer. She participated in the 5 Olympic Games and won 7 swimming medals (2 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze). She is one of the most successful African athletes in Olympic history. After retiring, she devoted herself to politics and served as the Minister of Sports of Zimbabwe in 2018. She has served as a member of the International Olympic Committee since 2013. She is the chairman of the Coordination Committee of the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympics and the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

"These experiences laid her the ability to deal with the complexity of international sports governance, especially her growth experience as an athlete, which allows her to quickly understand what athletes think and hope, and have the opportunity to make breakthrough achievements in protecting the rights and interests of athletes." Huang Yaling hopes that Coventry is a leader who combines both hard and softness, "continues Bach's courage to reform, and promotes inclusive governance with feminine qualities, which may help the Olympics cross a century-old bottleneck." The dancer on the "spider web"

Yi Jiandong found that starting from Samaranch, the candidate for the president of the International Olympic Committee seemed to have entered the cycle of hardliners and moderates. Therefore, Coventry is also regarded as the candidate for "over-moderate" after the tough reformist Bach. "But the current giant ship of the Olympic movement has entered the rough seas, and it is difficult for the helmsman without an iron fist to sail out of the crisis smoothly." He said that if Coventry can widely listen to the opinions of senior committee members on major decisions, avoid radical reforms, or can survive the term smoothly.

International Olympic Committee member and Winter Olympic champion Zhang Hong felt the "new atmosphere" at the first time. On June 24, Zhang Hong attended the first meeting after Coventry took office as president of the International Olympic Committee. Coventry said at the meeting that each member has a different background and has made great contributions to the sports industry in different fields. She hopes to hear everyone's voice. Therefore, the members of the meeting were divided into different groups, "relatively speaking, Asian committee members rarely spoke actively in the past, but group discussions gave everyone the opportunity to express themselves." Zhang Hong told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network, "These two-day meetings have made me feel that my voice has been recorded and heard, and the suggestions I put forward have been included in important issues in Olympic development, making me feel that my efforts have been rewarded."

The experience of working together has allowed Zhang Hong to see Coventry's investment and passion. Therefore, she firmly believes that she can lead the Olympics to a new level, "making it more global, more dynamic and influential." More importantly, "Coventry's election also inspires more athletes to pursue diversified development."

When the Olympics enter the Coventry era, how should China participate? At present, Coventry plans to visit my country during the 15th National Games in November this year, and "the prospects are worth looking forward to." Huang Yaling said that since Samaranch, the past presidents of the International Olympic Committee have had friendly relations with China. Coventry won gold medals at the Beijing Olympics and has clearly sent a positive signal that the two sides can deepen cooperation in multiple fields in the future.

In terms of environmental protection and sustainability, China has achieved the "dual carbon" goal in the 2022 Winter Olympics, and relevant experiences can provide "Chinese solutions"; in terms of diversification of Olympic projects, China's traditional national sports events can strive to enter the Olympic stage through modernization transformation; in the field of cross-cultural coordination, China's efforts to support the development of sports in Africa and Southeast Asia have been recognized and can play a bridge role in the future; in terms of artificial intelligence application, China's technological development is in a leading position, and can cooperate with the International Olympic Committee to explore more application scenarios.

Yi Jiandong believes that whether China can gain enough voice in key decisions still depends on its own talent layout in international sports organizations. "At present, China has a serious shortage of administrative personnel in organizations such as the International Olympic Committee. We urgently need to establish a systematic talent training and support mechanism for international sports organizations to enhance its voice in international sports to cope with the complex challenges of the Coventry era."

"The spider web is complex, tough and beautiful, but as long as one small piece breaks, the whole will become fragile. Everyone is part of it. Only by collaborating with each other and maintaining unity can it work properly." Coventry, who compared the Olympic movement to a spider web, was like a dancer in the web, and now, she has just stood in the middle of the stage.

This newspaper, Beijing, June 30