Online Reporter
Isdore Guvamombe-Reflections
Kirsty Coventry has a lot of mess to clean up at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), an organisation that had fast degenerated into a case of “all froth and no beer.”
It is a mammoth task, but she has the pedigree, which no one doubts.
Having been born a villager, the son of a peasant in rural Zimbabwe, southern Africa, I reckon, in the thriftiness of time, albeit at an old age, that I could have been someone different in life had I been accorded equal opportunities in life like my contemporaries in Western Europe.
I did every sport, from football to track events, and even boxing, but I had no access to the Olympics. For example, Mike Tyson is my age and is filthy rich from sport, yet, I remain a poor villager, who can not even sponsor a cock fight.
Tyson, for all his great talent that I cherish, had a chance to participate in the Olympics, where his talent was exposed to the world, yet I was herding cattle. I had the talent, the skills and a big heart, but I never got the chance to showcase my skill or nurture it.
Several decades later, into my adulthood, I sit here watching the Olympics and athletes with less than a quarter of the talent of the boys and girls I see back in my village and I ask again and again: “When shall we get the chance?”
There are many children, highly talented but failing to access real sports that transform their lives.
Coventry, a great athlete and former Cabinet minister in Zimbabwe is now at the helm of the IOC, glory be to her depth of character, knowledge and will to change things.
Suffice it to say, Coventry goes to the helm of an organisation that was almost breathing to its last, due to politicisation of activities, deception and fallacies like sexual orientation.
She has a big job, bringing back lost hope, dignity, credibility and inclusivity, things which former IOC president Thomas Bach, who served from 2013 to 2023, had overlooked and brought the organisation to its lowest opinion.
Sport was no longer sport. It became politics. IOC was dying fast and had become an extension of Western Europe political hegemony, bereft of sportsmanship.
Decisions under the Bach regime were made on political grounds, not the principles of nurturing and developing talent. The IOC had for those years degenerated into a political playing field where the West, used Bach to fight its political wars with countries like Russia and Belarus.
Athletes with no political affiliation were barred for the perceived sins of their countries and not for their own individual transgressions.
The organisation had become all froth and no beer, much to the chagrin of many who had supported Bach’s ascendancy to the helm of the organisation.
Today, only Coventry can bring back the sanity and, as a starting pint, make sure that Africa and Middle East also host the Olympics.
Many people know how the over-politicisation of the IOC under Bach, resulted in splinter sports organisation and disengagement of some affiliates.
There was selective use of bans for athletes and cooked up doping scandals based on race, creed and country of origin. For example, the formation of splinter sporting organisations like the BRICS Games and the Improved US Games etc.
Some individual sports organisations had already started refusing to hold competitions as reaction to the Bach administration’s political chicanery and in that group is the World Kickboxing Federation which cancelled the European Championship 2025 in Moldova, in protest of the banning of Russian and Belarusian athletes.
This has the capacity to cause a chain reaction to the IOC and have many affiliates refuse to tow the line. But when it came to defending Western Europe Bach was highly combative and confrontational.
Under Bach, the rights of women in sports had disappeared and men, masquerading as women, had taken over all female competitions, including combat sport such as boxing. And they were obviously winning.
Men, who compete as women after gender reassignment, should be banned. The Western ideology of promoting LGBT should not apply of female sports and the IOC must come up with a clear gender policy, that scientifically grade men as men and women as women.
Under Bach, the female category of the IOC was in shambles. It was chaotic and only Coventry can save the world from this savagery.
The world has been watching and what started as mere whispers are now loud calls for the organisation to be brought back to its glory and dignity; to its highly competitiveness and basic fundamentals of humanity.
The fact that the calls are coming when Coventry has just been catapulted to the helm means they have great appreciation of her knowledge and capacity to do the right things and IOC.
Leading progressive politicians such asSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez have described as “double standards“ the way athletes were being admitted under the Bach regime, especially based on the Israeli-Iran and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.
Everyone hopes that Coventry manages to save the IOC from sinking, for, failure to address these issues with be the Waterloo of the organization.
Everyone hopes she can do it faster. Every believes she is the best person to do and has the best chance to revert IOC to its original mandate, stature, respect ad dignity.
There has been too much corruption in the body of the organisation, which made some wrong decisions being made by people lining their pockets.
It cannot be repeated that the IOC can return its lost glory, at the moment only through Coventry.
Yes the politicians will be on the prowl in the West and will do everything in their powers to maintain hegemony on IOC, and when the organisation eventually dies, Bach will blame Coventry and avoid responsibility.
So, the progressive world should support Coventry i to do the right things. Political chicanery, great deception and power matrix must not bring IOC down.
Every talented athlete must be given the opportunity to participate on universal conditions, regardless of race or country of origin.
Until the philosophy that makes some athletes superior and others inferior, regardless of talent is removed IOC will soon die.
Let us give every person on the world a chance to showcase talent of fair and principled rules.
Isdore Guvamombe is a Zimbabwean journalist known by the sobriquet The Villager. Feedback; WhatsApp +263 775307560, e-mail [email protected]
