Is the new IOC President Kirsty Coventry emancipated from her predecessor Thomas Bach?

Trump, Russia, gender debates: The new IOC President Kirsty Coventry has a huge mountain of tasks in front of her. The biggest challenge should initially be to emancipate herself from her powerful sponsor.

The first impression sets the tone, even for the most powerful woman in world sports, and Kirsty Coventry felt that, as soon as she had taken a seat on the podium in the press hall of the Costa Navarino holiday resort. The first questioner took her to a little journey through time in 2013, in a luxury hotel from Buenos Aires when a Russian officer was looking forward to a certain Thomas Bach. It had just been elected at the top of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). And at that time at the other end of the management of the mobile phone that the servant had, the Russian head of state, was the first congratulator. President of Vladimir Putin’s grace, this label dangled on Bach’s name from then on.