Ben McCrum
Kirsty Coventry, the new International Olympic Committee President, has revealed plans that could lead to banned countries returning at the 2028 Games.
On Thursday, two-time Gold medallist Coventry became the first first female and African president of the IOC, beating six other candidates including British Olympic legend Lord Sebastian Coe.
The 41-year-old former swimmer, secured 49 of the 97 available votes in the first round of Thursday's vote, with Coe earning only eight.
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And it appears that she may be prepared to make some big changes, as she has revealed that she will open talks to allow a controversial banned country to re-enter the Olympic Games.
During the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, only Russians athletes who competed as neutrals were allowed to take part as athletes from both Russia and Belarus were banned from the Games following the invasion of Ukraine.
However, in an interview with Sky News, Coventry, who represented Zimbabwe at five Olympic Games from 2000 to 2016, admitted that she is against banning countries from competing over wars.
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When asked if she was against banning countries from the Olympics, the IOC President said: "I am, but I think you have to take each situation into account.
"And what I would like to do is set up a taskforce where this taskforce tries to set out some policies and some guiding frameworks that we as the movement can make decisions when we are brought into conflicts.
"We have conflicts in Africa and they're horrific at the moment. So this is not going away, sadly."
She added: "So how are we going to protect and support athletes? How are we going to ensure that all athletes have the opportunity to come to the Olympic Games?
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"Our responsibility is also to ensure once those athletes are all there, that they're safe and that we protect and support them during the Olympic Games.
"So there's a fine balance. But ultimately I believe that it's best for our movement to ensure that we have all athletes represented."
When asked specifically about Russia and the possibility of it being brought back into the Olympics ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in February 2026 or the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028, Coventry confirmed that it would be considered.
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"We're going to have that discussion with a collective group …with the taskforce," she said.