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.
Kirsty Coventry will be the first female president of the International OlympicCommittee (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.
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“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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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.”
Image: Kirsty Coventry at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. Pic: Reuters
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.”
Image: IOC President Thomas Bach holds up the name of Kirsty Coventry as she is announced as his replacement. Pic: AP
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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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.”
At least 23 people have been arrested during a second night of violent disorder near an asylum hotel in Dublin.
Two police officers were taken to hospital with injuries sustained during clashes with protesters – including one who was struck on the head by a bottle.
A Sky News crew was caught in the confusion as police charged at crowds, who were throwing fireworks, stones and other debris.
Eyewitness: It got ugly – and fast
By Connor Gillies, news correspondent
The Telegram and WhatsApp group chats were alive with activity organising night two of unrest here on the edge of Dublin.
City chiefs halted trams and buses to this part of the Irish capital in a bid to reduce the number of mobs coming from other areas to fight police.
It got ugly, and fast.
I witnessed children as young as seven throwing bricks at riot officers, that were standing in rows 5ft deep.
Balaclava-clad thugs were spotted pulling and shaking bollards on the roadside in an effort to dislodge the tarmac to use as projectiles.
Pepper spray from fire extinguisher-size canisters pelted the eyes of those who dared to confront law enforcement.
Teenagers dragged a baby pram filled with fireworks lit their missiles as they chucked them at officers who were charging forward in a bid to get the hundreds of locals under control.
There is palpable, deep anger in this community after the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl near a large hotel housing asylum seekers.
The recent incident has fuelled a “get them out” pitchfork mentality that authorities, so far, appear to be struggling to get a grip of.
Image: Pic: PA
It is the third night of demonstrations at the Citywest Hotel following an alleged sexual assault in the early hours of Monday morning.
A demonstration in the wake of the incident, which allegedly involved a 10-year-old girl, turned violent on Tuesday night. A police officer was injured and six arrests were made.
A 26-year-old man, who cannot be named due to rules that apply to all sexual assault cases in the Republic of Ireland, appeared in court on Tuesday charged over the alleged attack.
Image: Gardai officers block protesters near the Citywest Hotel in Dublin. Pic: PA
Police had earlier pledged a “robust response” if the violence continued.
Between 7pm and 8pm, hundreds of protesters faced off with around 40 uniformed officers.
The uniformed officers were replaced with the Public Order Unit, who were carrying plastic shields and additional body protection.
Image: A police van was set on fire on Tuesday night.
Protesters detained after stand-off
Hundreds of protesters had been facing off against the public order unit of the Irish police force along Citywest Drive.
While large parts of the crowd dispersed throughout the night, an additional public order unit was deployed to tackle those remaining at the protest shortly after 10pm.
Image: A number of protesters have been detained after fireworks and rocks were thrown at police. Pic: PA
Several of those caught between the two units were tackled and detained as they tried to flee.
Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said “many have been arrested” and “more will follow” – and went on to praise officers who had responded professionally to “thuggish violence” in the area.
Mr O’Callaghan vowed that those arrested would be “charged, named and dealt with relentlessly” by the criminal justice system.
Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies – and spoke of his frustration with Vladimir Putin.
In a major policy shift, new restrictions have been unveiled against Rosneft and Lukoil – as well as dozens of subsidiaries – due to “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. We encourage our allies to join us in, and adhere to, these sanctions.”
The move marked a significant change for the Trump administration, which has veered between pressuring Moscow and taking a more conciliatory approach aimed at securing peace in Ukraine.
Image: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks to reporters at the White House. Pic: Reuters
Trump frustrated with Putin
The US president has resisted pressure to impose energy sanctions on Russia, hoping that Putin would agree to end the fighting. But with no end in sight, he said he felt it was time.
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Mr Trump explained he has a “very good relationship” with his Russian counterpart, but felt he had to cancel their planned meeting as “it didn’t feel right to me”.
In a sign of growing frustration, he told reporters: “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it. But we’ll do it in the future.
“I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”
He also hinted that the sanctions could be lifted if the Russian president was prepared to cooperate in peace talks.
“We hope that they [the sanctions] won’t be on for long,” he said in the Oval Office. “We hope that the war will be settled.”
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1:56
Putin-Trump talks: The view from Moscow
Trump wants Xi to help with Ukraine
Ahead of a meeting next week with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, Mr Trump said he would like Beijing to help put pressure on Moscow to halt the fighting.
“I think he [Xi] can have a big influence on Putin. I think he can have a big influence … he’s a respected man. He’s a very strong leader of a very big country. And we will certainly be talking about Russia-Ukraine,” he said.
Xi and Putin have formed a strategic alliance between their countries.
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3:42
Why Tomahawks are off the table
Ukraine denied Tomahawk missiles
However, Mr Trump warned he is not prepared to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles, which Kyiv has requested.
He explained it would take the Ukrainians up to a year to learn how to use the “highly complex” weapons.
“The only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot … is if we shot it. And we’re not going to do that.
“It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it, and we’re not going to be teaching other people.”
Last year, Ukraine’s allies lifted restrictions on Storm Shadows and other long-range missiles, meaning Kyiv’s military can use them against targets across the border.
Image: A Storm Shadow missile system. Pic: Gary Dawson/Shutterstock
What are Storm Shadow missiles?
Storm Shadows are cruise missiles developed by the UK and France in the 1990s.
Launched from aircraft, they have a range more than 155 miles, manufacturer MBDA says, and can travel at speeds exceeding 600mph.
The missiles can be used with high precision for deep strikes while evading detection, the manufacturer says.
They have been used by the RAF and French air force and in the Gulf, Iraq and Libya, and more recently have been used by Ukrainian forces.
What sets them apart from some other projectiles is they use terrain mapping to navigate to their target, rather than relying just on GPS, military analyst Sean Bell says.
Image: A Tornado GR4 with Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Pic: Crown copyright
How have they been used in Ukraine?
Back in May 2023, the UK government announced it would provide Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles – the first country to do so.
Since then they have been used by Kyiv’s defenders to strike Russian targets inside Ukraine and also inside Russia.
While operational details of their use do not always emerge, it has been reported Storm Shadows have been used against targets including military headquarters and ships.
Storm Shadows can likely be operated entirely from within Ukraine, though probably with the assistance of intelligence gathered by Western surveillance planes over international waters.