Sebastian Coe defeated by Kirsty Coventry in his bid to become IOC president

Sebastian Coe’s bid to become president of the International Olympic Committee has ended in defeat, with Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe winning the vote.

Coe, 68, had said occupying the Olympic Movement’s highest office was a role he had been “training for for the best part of his life”, but a majority of IOC members instead gave their backing to Coventry in the first round of voting.

The 41-year-old becomes the first woman and first African in the post.

Coventry’s victory at the IOC Session in Greece was announced by current president Thomas Bach, who will officially hand over the reins on June 24th.

Victory for Coe would have been the peak of a stellar career in sports administration which followed great success in track and field, where he won Olympic gold in the 1500m at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games.

Coe led the bid and organising teams for the London 2012 Games and was the chairman of the British Olympic Association from 2012 to 2016. Since 2015 he has been president of World Athletics.

More recently, Coe chaired the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force, which has recommended Manchester United build a new 100,000-seater stadium as part of a wider project to regenerate the surrounding area.

He sought to reform the IOC from within, stating earlier in his campaign that “too much power is in the hands of too few people”.

He had also vowed to protect the female sport category.

“If you do not protect it, or you are in any way ambivalent about it for whatever reason, then it will not end well for women’s sport,” Coe said when he launched his campaign last year.

“I come from a sport where that is absolutely sacrosanct.”

However, a majority of 49 out of the 97 IOC members eligible to vote selected Coventry to lead the