The first female and first African president of the IOC, Kirsty Coventry, was inaugurated in the role Monday on the organization's 131st birthday with praise that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands.

Kirsty Coventry can remember the spot in her living room 33 years ago when, shortly after getting out of the pool and still wearing her swimsuit, she watched TV coverage of the Barcelona Olympics and a diver competing for her country of Zimbabwe.

History making and Zimbabwe's most decorated Olympian Kirsty Coventry has officially taken the helm of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) becoming the first woman ever to lead the global sporting body.