From geopolitical Jenga to gender politics: The challenges facing the new incoming IOC President Kirsty Coventry

By Aleks Klosok and Amanda Davies, CNN

(CNN) — It’s the most powerful position in world sport with high stakes, high expectations and high consequences.

Its occupant holds huge sway in shaping the global sporting landscape and narrative, wields extraordinary political clout, and presides over a multi-billion-dollar budget.

On Thursday, Kirsty Coventry became the latest occupant to hold this great responsibility when she was elected as the 10th President of International Olympic Committee (IOC), becoming the first woman and African to ever hold this position.

Coventry, who will also be the youngest ever to assume the role at age 41, will follow in the footsteps of outgoing President Thomas Bach, who during his 12-year term has overseen one of the most extraordinary periods in the history of the Olympic movement.

Coventry – who will officially take the reins in June – will arrive at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty around the globe, question marks over the direction of the Olympic movement in the 21st century, and more scrutiny than ever on issues concerning gender identity and equality, among others.

Russia reintegration

With less than a year to go until the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina, one of the first items on the agenda will be whether and how to reintegrate Russian and Belarusian athletes back into the Olympic fold

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the IOC imposed a blanket ban on athletes from both countries from participating in its events.

Just over a year later, though, the organization approved allowing said athletes to take part in international sports tournaments as neutrals in March 2023, provided they met strict eligibility criteria.

In total, 32 athletes – 17 Russian and 15 Belarusian passport holders – ended up accepting the IOC’s invitation to compete under the Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) flag at last year’s Paris Games.

Bach recently told CNN Sports that any decision moving forward should continue to be made with the best interests of the athletes and not their nationality or ongoing geopolitical events in mind.

“It’s not about Russia. It is about the athletes. Everybody who is following the rules has to have the right to participate in the Olympic Games, full stop,” he told CNN Sports’ Amanda Davies.

Russia has already said it will fight for its participation in 2026, while Ukraine has urged the Olympic movement to hold firm and keep Russian and Belarusian athletes at bay.

With qualification events already underway for next year’s showpiece event and the war in Ukraine still rumbling on, time will be of the essence.

Trump presidency

Then there is navigating the contentious and unpredictable Trump administration in the lead up to the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

While Bach has played up the relationship between the IOC and President Donald Trump and his hopes that LA will “expose the US as a sports-loving country,” the US president’s direct, disruptive style of leadership may severely test that resolve.

Trump, perhaps more than any other world leader in Games gone by, will want to put his own stamp on proceedings.

As the host nation’s head of state, he will likely help formally open the Summer Olympics on July 14, 2028.

“Donald Trump becomes the single most important player, the single most important figure outside of the Olympic movement,” said CNN Sports analyst Christine Brennan. “This is a man who loves sports and wants to insert himself in sports every way he can.

“I see him being a huge force within that, and I also see him being a very disruptive force within that.”

Trump has already warned that visas could be denied to LA-bound competitors based on their nationality and who don’t meet the administration’s gender interpretations, among others.

With teams having already been denied entry into the US and relations having soured in recent months between the US and some of its long-time allies, the two-time gold medal-winning Olympic swimmer will need to tread a fine line between maintaining the IOC’s principles of neutrality and universality, while also providing a pragmatic approach to ensure all 206 National Olympic Committees, plus the Refugee Olympic Team, are all present at the Athlete’s Village.

DSD and transgender rules

As it stands, there is currently no clear, unified approach or framework between the IOC and its International Federations (IFs) regarding the participation of athletes with differences in sex development (DSD) and transgender athletes from the local through to the national and global stage.

IFs have been able to decide their own participation rules – based on fairness, inclusion and scientific evidence – following a revised framework put in place by the IOC in November 2021.

Some IFs, like World Athletics, have subsequently adopted tighter regulations with stricter thresholds or additional requirements for DSD athletes, while others, like World Rugby, have taken a stronger position in banning transgender athletes from competing in elite women’s competitions, citing competitive advantage and safety concerns, among others.

The lack of universal rules has been criticized for creating confusion among athletes and stakeholders.

This was especially evident during last summer’s Paris Games when boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting became the targets of misinformation about their gender, triggering an onslaught of online, transphobic abuse toward athletes

“It’s a phenomenon of our world. What does social media do in such cases?” Bach recently told CNN.

“You had all sorts of people from all walks of life who were jumping on this without having any idea. We need to dig a little bit deeper how in this world you can really expose the facts and then discuss these facts – and then how to interpret these facts.”

Changes made by Coventry, who is currently Zimbabwe’s sports minister, could include the implementation of standardized rules for all sports based on firm scientific evidence, with universal eligibility criteria that will help to simplify policies and subsequently help reduce current confusion.

New frontiers

Coventry’s eight-year mandate will run all the way through to 2033.

All Games in that window have already been picked – even the 2034 Winter Olympics, which will be staged in Salt Lake City.

With the next decade secured, attention will turn to the selection of the host for the Summer Games in 2036.

It will be the first time a decision has been taken since human rights commitments have been added to the Olympic Charter.

Furthermore, the IOC has also modified its selection criteria changing the host from a single city to multiple cities, regions, or countries.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India and Indonesia, among others, have already all expressed an interest in hosting the Games.

While there is no set timetable currently in place for a decision, the expectation is that an announcement won’t be made until after 2025.

With climate concerns becoming an increasingly prominent consideration in decision-making, a review of the global sports calendar for both Summer and Winter Games could also be undertaken to allow for more interested parties to bid for the Games.

Seoul 1988 and Sydney 2000, for example, hosted the summer edition of the Games in the window between September and October.

Aside from taking the Games to new corners of the world, the Olympic movement may also start to see a diversification of sports to cater for a younger, digital-minded audience.

With the inaugural Olympic Esports Games being held in Riyadh in 2027, a push for new forms of delivering the Games to audiences around the world in a rapidly changing entertainment-scape could also see the IOC embrace a push for technological transformation, the likes of which it has never seen before.

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