adminFORMER swimming icon Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (41) is one of the frontrunners to succeed Thomas Bach as president of the International Olympic Committee.
His term ends in five months at the 143rd Session in Athens, Greece.
The former Zimbabwean and African swimming icon has already made history as the second woman to seek the presidency of the Olympic movement.
In 2001, former US hockey player Anita DeFrantz sought to succeed Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Sr., but she was unsuccessful, and the new president was then Belgium’s Jacques Rogge.
When it comes to professional achievements, Coventry and Briton Sebastian Coe are the only current running mates with a glorious past.
Both are two-time Olympic champions and multiple medallists.
The other candidates are Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr (Spain), Morinari Watanabe (Japan), Faisal bin Al Hussein (Jordan), David Lappartient (France), and Johan Eliasch (Great Britain/Sweden).
Let’s try to find out a little about Coventry outside the pool.
The former swimmer is seeking to become the first African president after eight Europeans (Demetrius Vikelas of Greece, Pierre de Coubertin of France, Henri de Baillet-Latour of Belgium, Sweden’s Sigfrid Edstroem, Ireland’s Lord Killanin, Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch Sr., Belgium’s Rogge and now Germany’s Bach), and one American (Avery Brundage of the USA).
Described as Bach’s favourite and the one closest to the Olympic “think tank,” she has a Bachelor’s degree in Human Sciences and Hotel and Restaurant Management from Auburn University in Alabama, USA, obtained on a ULL scholarship. Elected to the Athletes’ Council of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2012, four years before her retirement at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, she became the president of the Athletes Representative Council in January 2018, succeeding American ice hockey player Angela Ruggiero.
Coventry was the third consecutive female president after Ruggiero and German fencer Claudia Bokel, and the first chair from Africa after Namibia’s Frankie Fredericks, an athletics legend who won four Olympic silver medals (two in the 100m and two in the 200m), as well as a gold and three silvers in the 200m at the World Athletics Championships.
She married long-time boyfriend and former manager Tyrone Seward on August 10, 2013, is now a mother to five-year-old Ella, and was dubbed the “golden girl” by the late former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe when she won her second Olympic title.
Let’s take a look at her political and leadership career.
In 2015, she and her husband founded the Kirsty Coventry Academy, a non-profit organisation that provides swimming lessons for children, adults and coaches. She has a strong commitment to social programmes and educational development, both in Zimbabwe and abroad.
Less than two years after chairing the IOC Athletes Commission, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed her as Zimbabwe’s Minister of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation on September 7, 2019.
President Mnangagwa has always believed in her and when he won the second election on August 23, 2023, he reappointed the former swimmer as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation.
“I did it because I am satisfied with her performance. It’s me who is happy whether a minister is doing well or not and the fact that I have reappointed her means that I am happy,” President Mnangagwa said.
In February 2022, FIFA suspended the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) after the government’s Sports and Recreation Commission previously suspended the governing body over financial irregularities and allegations of sexual harassment of female referees by staff. Several ZIFA Board members accused Coventry of lying to parliament that they had misappropriated part of a US$2 million (£1.6 million/€1.9 million) government funding package provided by the government and that some of them had been suspended over sexual harassment issues. Coventry refused to retract her comments.
She is the Chair of the Coordinating Committee for the Dakar 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games and the Brisbane 2032 Summer Olympic Games.
This means that her relationship with the current president of the International Olympic Committee is excellent. Will she be the “official” candidate? Will she be able to become the first female IOC president? To be revealed in Athens next March. — insidethegames
Online Reporter