New IOC chief sets ambitious goals to strengthen, expand Olympic movement

Kirsty Coventry, the newly elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), expressed her aspirations to strengthen the Olympic movement by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance athlete development and expand its global appeal.

In an exclusive interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Costa Navarino, Greece, Coventry shared her vision for the future of the IOC while highlighting AI's transformative potential in sports.

She emphasized the importance of making athletes feel valued for their contributions, believing that this sense of recognition could contribute to the building of a stronger Olympic movement.

"There are so many different opportunities for each stakeholder to play a very specific role within our movement, and I just want to make sure that I'm going to be able to create a platform for each player to really feel valued and to feel that they are leaving a legacy for themselves and for the movement. And if we can do that and find ways to do that together we're going to create a much stronger overall Olympic movement," Coventry said.

She also highlighted the Olympic AI Agenda, launched in April last year, which seeks to utilize AI to broaden the movement's global reach and deliver essential support to athletes worldwide.

"I think it's going to be a game changer, really, being able to embrace. And we launched our AI agenda last year and we need to leverage off of that. There are a lot of recommendations in there, very strong recommendations that are going to allow for us to reach new regions, be able to identify talent in the most rural parts of our globe and that so exciting. And then how do we take that further, how do we then get those athletes access to coaches and to trainers and to doctors and to nutritionists and how do we get them support? So all of those different steps, I would love to see us working on so that we have a greater reach across the globe," said Coventry.

Coventry, 41, was elected as the 10th IOC president on Thursday, becoming the first woman and the first African to lead the global Olympic movement.

She won the presidency in the first round of voting during the 144th IOC Session in Greece and will take office after June 23, succeeding Thomas Bach.

Coventry has served as Zimbabwe's Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts, and Recreation since 2018. A former Olympic swimming champion, she is one of Africa's most decorated athletes, with seven Olympic medals, including two golds.

New IOC chief sets ambitious goals to strengthen, expand Olympic movement

Officials from the European Union (EU) and Finland have voiced concerns after the White House said it has been discussing "a range of options" to acquire Greenland, including the use of the military.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told a press briefing in Cairo on Thursday that the message from the U.S. is "extremely concerning," and "not really helping the stability of the world."

Kallas called on all parties to stick to international law, adding that relevant response measures has been discussed among EU members.

"The international law is very clear, and we have to stick to it. It is clear that it is the only thing that protects smaller countries, and that is why it is in the interest of all of us. And we discussed this today, as well, that we uphold the international law on all levels," she said.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen on Thursday described recent remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration on Greenland as "worrying," while reiterating Finland's support for Denmark and Greenland's right to self-determination.

"Finland and the other Nordic countries have exceptional expertise in Arctic conditions, and we are happy to make use of that together with our North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to strengthen Arctic security, but it cannot be done by threatening allies," she said at a press conference at Finnish parliament after an extraordinary meeting of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee.

Johannes Koskinen, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said it was "unprecedented" for threats of violence to be made within NATO against another member in connection with seizing territory, adding that such threats run counter to the United Nations Charter and that their inconsistency with international law should be underscored at all levels.

EU, Finnish officials express concerns over US remarks on Greenland