Online Reporter
Fungai Muderere, Senior Sports Reporter
THE AIPS’ question and answer series “Let’s Talk to the IOC Presidential Candidates” got off to a great start on 24 February with Kirsty Coventry (KC), who has been the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe since September 2018, sharing her views on how to address some of the challenges facing the organisation that she hopes to lead in a few months.
The 41-year-old Zimbabwean is aiming to become the first female and first African to lead the 130-year-old International Olympic Committee and she is the youngest among seven candidates running to succeed Thomas Bach in the presidential election scheduled for 20 March at the 144th IOC Session in Greece.
“It’s really a pleasure for me to be here. I am excited to speak with all of you today. First and foremost, I would have loved to be the youngest-ever candidate, but most of you know that our founder, Pierre de Coubertin, was actually the youngest at age 33, so I’ve got a good decade on him, which I’m proud of. But really it’s a great honour to be in this race,” the IOC Executive Board member and Africa’s most-decorated Olympian, said during the question and answer session that was moderated by AIPS president Gianni Merlo.
Question and Answer session
Motherhood
Gianni Merlo: As a mother of a four-month old baby, many people are wondering how you travel around with young kids.
KC: Yes, I have a young family, as do a few other candidates, but when I had my first baby — she’s now turning six in May, I was leading the Athletes Commission, I was appointed minister (in Zimbabwe), I was running my foundation and numerous things. And before she was one, she had been to 10 different countries around the world. I have an incredible network of support from my husband and family, and Lily, the newest addition to the family, has already been to five countries, so we’re on a record streak here.
This is a normal way of life for us and I think it’s a good way to show that women are just as capable as men, even if we are expected to be full-time mothers, wives, daughters, etc.
Gender equality
The IOC has made impressive progress in achieving gender equality across different areas, but in this race you are the only woman, out of seven, why do you think so?
KC: We have reached gender equality on the field of play, and we saw that for the first time in Paris, which we’re very proud of. The movement has been doing an incredible job over the last few years within the membership, and we’re now at 42 percent I believe, of women. But we still have a long way to go. When we look at International Federations that drops down drastically. When we look at National Olympic Committees, it drops down drastically. When we look at national federations, I think it rises a little bit, but still not gender equal. So we still have a lot of work to do, and I’m excited about leading that movement. I look at it as an opportunity to push the boundaries, so that when my two girls are growing up, they don’t have the same boundaries. So that is a little bit of why I’m running, not the main reason, but I think a very strong reason.
Prarthana Hazarika from India: How would you deal with the issue of sexism and stereotypes in the coverage of women athletes?
KC: I think we need to ensure that the number of female journalists increases. And I’m really happy with what I am seeing online today, but we also know that there are a number of female crew members, and we need to encourage that. We need to ensure that we’re really purposefully incorporating that into OBS and what that looks like. And I think if we can do that, we potentially wouldn’t have as many of the comments that you have just shared with us coming out.
The transgender debate
Gianni Merlo: There is a big debate about transgender and so on. What is your opinion?
KC: I think that we as the IOC need to take a little bit more of a leadership role. I would like to sit down with all the International Federations and come up with a common framework for all of us to work with. It will obviously depend on the sport. We have equestrian where men and women already compete against each other, so the topic is not as big in certain sports, but each Federation, over the last few years have really worked quite diligently with their medical teams to come up with rules and regulations that they feel best protects the female category for their sport. And I think as the IOC we should take a leadership role in understanding all of these differences — most are actually very similar — and take a leading role in the decision that we’re going to make in order to protect the female category.
Gianni Merlo: Do you think it is possible to find the right solution?
KC: I think it is possible. What is in place right now is that the IOC has the decision up to the International Federations, and the majority of the International Federations did a lot of work with their medical teams, with medical and scientific research, to come up with rules and regulations that fit their sport. What I’m saying is that as the IOC, we should bring everyone together, try and understand if there is a way to put out a common framework and take a bit of a leading role. I’m not a medical doctor. We need to rely on the facts. We need to rely on medical research and then come up with a common ground and a common framework that will be able to protect the female category.
Ayishatu Ali from Ghana: With a view to the LA28 Olympics, what is your take on the executive order in the USA banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports, considering that not all countries have such an order?
KC: Ultimately, what I believe we need to do is protect the female category. And how I would suggest we go about doing that is sitting down with all the International Federations and agreeing on a framework that is going to do that.
Prize money at the olympics
Gianni Merlo: What is your opinion on introducing prize money at the Olympics?
KC: Personally, I’m not a fan of prize money. I would rather try and identify new ways of better supporting athletes on their journey to becoming an Olympian. For me, as an athlete, that was the hardest time for me. It was hard to find sponsorship, it was hard on my family, and the Olympic Solidarity scholarship that I managed to receive really added a lot of value. So I would rather put more focus on identifying direct funding to athletes before they get to the Olympic Games, and then after the Olympic Games, once they retire how do we help them in that next phase of life? I also think that there are opportunities with technology today to leverage the Olympic Games as a platform.
At the Games in Paris, we saw a number of athletes leverage their social media platforms, being able to become influencers, promoting different products and making a living for themselves. So how can we help athletes understand and navigate those platforms so that they are consistently growing their own individual businesses? That, for me, is more of where I’d like to focus my time, rather than a one-off payment at the Games.
War and the olympics
Gianni Merlo: Still on the athletes, with wars going on in different parts of the world, what will be the guidelines to allow athletes from affected countries to compete in future Olympics?
KC: I think above anything else, it’s our duty as the IOC to ensure that all athletes can participate at the Games. Now, that’s going to look different for a number of different athletes, but at the end of the day, I do believe that we need to find a holistic way of, sadly, dealing with athletes from conflict areas. It’s not just the bigger wars and the conflicts that are happening in Europe and the Middle East, there are wars and conflicts in Africa. How are we going to protect these athletes and support them? I think there are always sensitivities that have to be taken into consideration, as we did for Paris. But again, what needs to be done is we need to acknowledge that, sadly, there are more and more conflicts. How are we holistically going to be supporting and protecting athletes that are facing these challenges across the world, not just from specific areas, but all across the world? -@FungaiMuderere
