Kirsty Coventry was elected president of the International Olympic Committee on Thursday and became the first woman and first African to get perhaps the biggest job in world sports. "It is a signal that we are truly global," the Zimbabwe sports minister and two-time Olympic swimming gold medalist said.

The race for the most powerful job in world sport entered its final stretch on Thursday as International Olympic Committee members began casting their ballots at a luxury seaside resort in Greece’s southwestern Peloponnese.