The king is dead, long live the queen

Kirsty Coventry always promised she would be her own woman when she became IOC President and the initital signs are that she will not be a Thomas Bach puppet

It is early days yet, of course, but I wonder if Thomas Bach is thinking whether he has made a mistake in backing Kirsty Coventry so strongly to replace him as President of the International Olympic Committee?

It was all smiles at the ceremony held in Lausanne last week when the Zimbabwean officially took over from Bach, being handed a symbolic key to Olympic House by Bach. Bach thanked the IOC members for their support claiming that “I have never walked this path alone. We have reformed, we have renewed, we have united around the values that define our Olympic Movement.”

But, less than 48 hours later, it was clear that not all of Bach’s reforms were as appreciated as he believed and Coventry has already started to roll back some of the more unpopular ones.