Olympics' champion: New IOC president Kirsty Coventry inaugurated to start 8-year leadership

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The first female and first African president of the IOC, Kirsty Coventry, was inaugurated in the role Monday on the organization's 131st birthday with praise that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands.”

Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming for Zimbabwe, finally and formally takes office Tuesday aged just 41 after decisively winning a seven-candidate election in March to succeed Thomas Bach.

Coventry cited her family including her two young daughters as “my rocks, my inspiration” to lead the International Olympic Committee through the next eight years including the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

“You are my constant reminders of why we do what we do every single day,” Coventry said, addressing six-year-old Ella seated near the front of the ceremony

“You are a constant reminder of why this movement is relevant, why it needs to change, why we need to embrace the new ways,” the new president said. “And you will be a constant reminder for many years to come on the decisions that we all take together.”

She thanked her husband, Tyrone Seward, because "you have always stood by my side and never said ‘No.’ And I appreciate that because that is something that doesn’t come very often.”

Coventry, a former swim team standout at Auburn University, said Olympic leaders were "guardians of a platform ... to inspire, to change lives, to bring hope.”

Bach’s voice had cracked with emotion minutes earlier as he handed over a symbolic key to the presidency to his protégé in Olympic politics.

The 71-year-old German lawyer, an Olympic champion in team fencing in 1976, leaves after the maximum 12 years in an office he said was now in the “best of hands” with Coventry.

“I believe with all my heart that the Olympic movement is ready for the future,” said Bach, adding he had “given all I could” to the IOC and the games.

The ceremony took place in a temporary building in the gardens of Olympic House designed in the style of the Grand Palais in Paris that hosted fencing and taekwondo at the Summer Games last year.

A steamy, humid day at the IOC’s lakeside modern headquarters saw a sudden downpour of rain minutes before the scheduled start. It forced Bach and Coventry to shelter under a shared umbrella as they walked from the villa that was the former Olympic home.

The hour-long ceremony included a four-minute montage of tributes to Bach, who now becomes the IOC’s honorary president. He has expressed a wish to counsel his successor.

Coventry’s first day at the office will feature a closed-door session to hear the views of around 100 IOC members. They include current and former heads of state, business leaders and billionaires, past and current Olympic athletes, plus leaders of Olympic sports.

In a team photo taken after the handover ceremony, the IOC member who stayed closest to Coventry was Nita Ambani, a member of the richest family in India who is key to the country's ambitions to host the 2036 Olympics.

Picking the host shapes as one of the biggest decisions during the new president's first term. Asia seems favored and Middle East neighbors Qatar and Saudi Arabia also are preparing bids in the more flexible and unpredictable process that lets the IOC fast-track a preferred option to avoid a contested vote.

A theme of Coventry's election opponents — including one of her four IOC vice presidents, Juan Antonio Samaranch — was the members' wish to be more involved in consultation and decision-making after Bach's hands-on presidency. Their first chance to air views comes Tuesday.

“It's an important step to listen and to give people the opportunity to talk," William Blick, a member from Uganda, told The Associated Press while welcoming the powerful symbol of electing a first IOC leader from Africa who also was a young woman. "It’s a very good way for her to start.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

The outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach, right, hugs the new IOC President Kirsty Coventry during the handover ceremony of the IOC Presidency at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

President-elect Kirsty Coventry, center, attends the handover ceremony of the IOC Presidency at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

IOC President Thomas Bach, right, and President-elect Kirsty Coventry arrive for the handover ceremony of the IOC Presidency at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

The outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach waves to the audience after receiving the Olympic order in gold prize during the handover ceremony of the IOC Presidency at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

IOC President Thomas Bach, right, and President-elect Kirsty Coventry pose during the handover ceremony of the IOC Presidency at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

President-elect Kirsty Coventry speaks during the handover ceremony of the IOC Presidency at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)