The incoming IOC president has revealed to Sky News she is against banning countries from the Olympics over wars and will open talks on Russia’s potential return to the Games.

Only Russians competing as neutrals were allowed to take part in Paris 2024 as Moscow was punished for launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kirsty Coventry will be the first female president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its first African leader.

The former Olympic swimmer, who won two gold medals for Zimbabwe, has said she sees inconsistencies in the current approach of singling out Russia while there are conflicts on her own continent.

Asked a day after her election if she was against banning countries from the Olympics over conflicts, Ms Coventry told Sky News: “I am, but I think you have to take each situation into account.

“What I would like to do is set up a taskforce where this taskforce tries to set out some policies and some guiding frameworks that we as the movement can use to make decisions when we are brought into conflicts.

“We have conflicts in Africa and they’re horrific at the moment. So this is not going away, sadly.

“So how are we going to protect and support athletes?

“How are we going to ensure that all athletes have the opportunity to come to the Olympic Games?

“And our responsibility is also to ensure once those athletes are all there, that they’re safe and that we protect and support them during the Olympic Games.

“So there’s a fine balance. But ultimately I believe that it’s best for our movement to ensure that we have all athletes represented.”

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New IOC president will have to deal with Trump, Putin and transgender issue

US President Donald Trump has also apparently discussed with Russian leader Vladimir Putin the idea of using sports to heal relations with Russia.

While the next Summer Olympics are not until 2028 in Los Angeles, there are fewer than 11 months until the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

So will Russia be back by then?

“We’re going to have that discussion with a collective group …with the taskforce,” she said.

Gender eligibility

This interview was taking place a day after her election to the highest job in sport – seeing off six rivals, including Sebastian Coe.

World Athletics – led by Lord Coe – has been exploring whether to introduce swab tests to assess gender eligibility.

A key athletics meeting next week is due to discuss the issue amid concerns about fairness over athletes with differences of sex development and transgender women competing in women’s sport.

The IOC has previously called a return to sex testing a “bad idea”, but Ms Coventry is not ruling it out as she has talked about protecting the female category.

“This is a conversation that’s happened and the international federations have taken a far greater lead in this conversation,” she said.

“What I was proposing is to bring a group together with the international federations and really understand each sport is slightly different.

“We know in equestrian, sex is really not an issue, but in other sports it is.

“So what I’d like to do again is bring the international federations together and sit down and try and come up with a collective way forward for all of us to move.”

Future Olympic hosts

Looking ahead there are the 2036 Olympics to be awarded.

And Ms Coventry pledged IOC members will get more of a say after behind-the-scenes deals under Thomas Bach seeing Paris (2024), LA (2028) and Brisbane (2034) uncontested decisions.

The IOC presidential campaign has raised when Africa and the Middle East will host the Olympics for the first time, as well as potential interest from India to host the Games in 2036.

“There’s a few slight adjustments that I’d like to make in terms of involvement of the IOC members – that was something very clearly related to me in this campaign,” Ms Coventry said.

“But new regions and embracing new regions … will be a part of what I would like to see.

“I think if we can embrace new regions across the entire movement, it opens this up for so many different opportunities, including revenue growth, including being able to reach new audiences.”

Zimbabwe rights concerns

There has been scrutiny over Ms Coventry’s role in Zimbabwe’s government as sports minister given concerns – raised by the UK government – about whether the country is violating human rights and clamping down on political freedoms.

“I have always been a very proud Zimbabwean and when I was asked to step into this role (as a minister in 2018), I took time to really consider it,” she said.

“I knew that it would come with different thoughts and feelings, but I wanted to try and create change in my country. I wanted to try and make things better for athletes in my country and we’re doing that.

“We’re working on strengthening pieces of legislation that have never been there before. And these are things that I don’t believe I would have been able to achieve on the outside.”

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IOC agenda

Ms Coventry officially starts in June as the first female IOC president.

“It shows that we are moving and we’re changing and we’re global and we’re diverse and we represent everybody,” she said.

And how will her presidency be judged a success? The rules allow her to serve until 2037 if she is re-elected for a final four-year term after being given an initial eight-year mandate.

She said: “I want to ensure that we can find these young, talented athletes from around the world and we can give them an opportunity to be identified and to have training and be connected to the best coaches in the world and that’s all going to be driven by embracing technology.

“And I think that is going to be really a game changer in the next few years.”

Heathrow Airport is to remain shut until midnight after a large fire at a nearby electricity substation, disrupting travel for thousands of passengers.

Tracking site Flightradar24 estimates 1,357 flights would be affected (679 into and 678 out of Heathrow) today, including around 120 which were already in the air this morning before the shutdown.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told Sky News “it was too early to know” what caused the “catastrophic fire”.

Follow live updates on Heathrow closure

Passengers have been warned to stay away from the airport and all trains to Heathrow have been suspended.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025,” Heathrow said in a statement.

“We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.”

Planes usually begin landing and taking off at around 5am after the regular overnight quiet period.

Around 120 flights were bound for Heathrow when the airport announced it would be closing for the day. Some will have turned back to the airport they departed from. But others were already crossing the Atlantic and have been diverted to airports in Europe.

Data from Flightradar24 shows Amsterdam has taken the most diversions at seven, while Gatwick, Frankfurt and Shannon have all taken six flights each.

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports and had a record 83.9 million passengers last year, with a plane landing or taking off around every 45 seconds.

Flight delayed or cancelled? What are your rights?

Stranded passengers

Flightradar24 estimates that means there are about 220,000 passengers using the hub every day.

Its total closure is set to have knock-on effects on airline operations around the world for several days to come.

Matt, who is waiting at Canada’s Vancouver International Airport, told Sky News that British Airways “have been great” and they had been rebooked for a flight on Saturday. “Fingers crossed Heathrow is open!” he added.

But Raman who is stuck in Dubai said: “Flight keeps getting delayed – just seems crazy that BA won’t cancel it considering Heathrow is closed anyway. Zero comms from BA.”

British Airways, the biggest carrier at Heathrow, reiterated that customers should not go to the airport until further notice.

A statement said: “This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond.”

Gatwick Airport said in a statement that it is “supporting by accepting diverted flights as required” and that it is operating “as normal today”.

Meanwhile Ryanair has launched what it is calling eight “rescue flights” for passengers affected by the Heathrow closure.

16,000 homes without power

The fire that caused the power outage is at a substation in Hayes, about 1.5 miles to the north of the airport, and an estimated 16,000 homes nearby are also without electricity.

London Fire Brigade (LFB) said the blaze was now under control and, while there have been no casualties, crews evacuated 29 people from neighbouring properties.

Earlier pictures from the scene – on Nestles Avenue – showed large flames and plumes of thick black smoke.

LFB said 10 engines and around 70 firefighters had been working to extinguish the blaze – with the first 999 call received at 11.23pm on Thursday.

It said a transformer within the North Hyde substation had caught alight but the cause is so far unknown.

A National Grid spokesperson said they “working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible” after the fire damaged equipment.

Backup generator also failed

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told Sky News there was a backup generator but it was also affected by what he called a “catastrophic fire”.

He described the situation as “unusual and unprecedented” adding it was “too early to know” what caused the substation blaze.

Fire was ‘significant incident’

LFB Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said it was a “significant incident” but crews “successfully contained the fire and prevented further spread”.

“While power has been restored to some properties, we continue to work closely with our partners to minimise disruption,” he added. Local residents have been told to keep their windows and doors closed.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said shortly after midnight that a “widespread power cut” was affecting Hayes, Hounslow and surrounding areas.

A graphic on the company’s website suggested around 16,000 homes were affected.

Sudan’s military has said it has retaken the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting.

The current conflict in Sudan erupted in April 2023 when a power struggle between the leaders of the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) boiled over into open fighting in Khartoum and other cities.

Social media videos showed the military’s soldiers inside on the 21st day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month.

A Sudanese military officer wearing a captain’s epaulettes made the announcement in a video and confirmed the troops were inside the compound.

Eyewitness: Waiting and praying for news of victory after two years of war

The palace appeared to be partly in ruins, with soldiers’ steps crunching broken tiles underneath their boots.

Soldiers carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers chanted: “God is the greatest!”

Sudan’s information minister said the military had retaken the palace in a post on X.

“Today the flag is raised, the palace is back and the journey continues until victory is complete,” he wrote.

Read more: Maps show Sudan conflict’s shifting frontlines as SAF regains territory

The Republican Palace was the seat of government before the war erupted and is immortalised on Sudanese banknotes and postage stamps.

Its recapture by the military marks another gain for Sudan’s military which has made steady advances in recent months.

The rival RSF has been mostly expelled from the capital of Khartoum after Sudan’s war began in April 2023.

Gunfire was heard in the capital overnight on Friday, although whether this was from fighting or celebrations is unclear.

The RSF hasn’t acknowledged the loss of the presidential palace but the group still holds territory elsewhere in Sudan so fighting is likely to continue.

The war has killed more than 28,000 people, according to UN figures, and forced millions to flee their homes.

Families have been left eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive a famine that is sweeping through parts of the country.