Online Reporter
Professor Kenneth Wa Matigari
Kirsty Coventry is a great athlete, a great woman, mother and leader, who grew up in the Olympic system. No one can lie to her. She knows it all in the Olympics.
Before the election of Zimbabwean Coventry to the helm of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the organisation had taken a dip; had become riddled with political polarisation between the monopolistic Western Europe and progressive East.
Today, brutal facts show that many athletes outside the West were traumatised to the marrow and failed to develop and showcase their talents after Western political interference and entrapment.
The Olympics were fast losing their credibility; there was gender chaos, there was unfair treatment of athletes based on world politics and little everything else was beginning to go down the drain.
Today, the world pins its hopes on Coventry — an athlete-cum-administrator, who has seen it all in the games — to depoliticise IOC and bring back sanity and dignity for all and sundry.
There is no doubt Coventry has the knowledge, the depth of character and the first-hand experience acquired over the years, for she participated in the Olympics and conquered against all odds.
At the core of Coventry’s mandate is coming up with a gender policy that defines females and males, and save females from being manipulated by men, masquerading at transgender, or some funny name, etc.
There is need for a clear-cut definition of females on the Olympics and that should not look at the faces or country of origin of the athletes, but on scientifically or rather biologically proven universal facts.
The world is glad that Coventry’s set to form a Gender Taskforce that includes scientists, technocrats, experienced athletes and administrators to do professional gender mainstreaming.
For Coventry, what used to pain her as a female participant, is still of concern to her. Competing with athletes of dubious sexual orientation, should be thing of the past. Talent is talent. Competition should be fair.
The corruption she saw in doping and the sidelining of athletes from countries like Russia, using doping as a smokescreen to hide the political tiff between US and its allies in the West on one side and Russia on the other.
There no doubt that many athletes from Russia had their lifetime skills and Olympics hopes quashed, at the alter of political expedience, which is a real affront to the main principles of Olympics, that of developing and showcasing talent, regardless of race, dogma or political affiliation.
Would it not be great, before God and man, for Coventry to leave a legacy, when she finally leaves the power stage, to have depoliticised IOC, and leave it as an organisation for sports talent and not politics; a measurement for excellence and fairness not a post-cold war political platform?
For Coventry, she is the right person to restore order and sanity because she experienced all. What used to pain her athlete compatriots, competitors and associates is still with her.
What used to haunt her as a participant from Africa — a looked down upon region — should be her cause for concern. Why Africa and Middle East have never hosted Winter or Summer Olympics, she knows and needs to fix it, in order to fulfil the Olympic principles of inclusivity.
Coventry has many friends in former athletes and administrators and had given herself the mandate to set things right, to fix things.
She knows what needs to be done, but whether she is going to be successful or not, is depended on many other factors, including geo-political factors.
She will be setting up a Taskforce that must have all representatives from all regions and affiliates and have at least three scientists. Decision of gender issues must not be dealt with on Ad hoc basis, it must be done based on the policy crafted by the Taskforce and Endorsed by IOC.
Pushing for deliberate protection of female athletes is a must. The female category has been cause for concern over the transgender issues.
It is believed that the 2028 Olympics in US will be a test case for Coventry to show her great vision and set the record straight and depoliticise IOC.
In Coventry the world must start seeing transparency and accountability without looking at the face. The IOC must show transparency and understanding of the socio-economic dynamics of disadvantaged regions like Africa where talent has been suppressed due to lack of exposure and transparency.
THE IOC must inspire people in those regions to come out and showcase their talent and not disenfranchise them because of the politics of small nations and big nations.
There is no doubt that Coventry carries everyone’s hope and using her experience as an athlete, an administrator and a former Minister of Sports in her country, has what it takes to bring back sanity and dignity to the Olympic family.
The world is watching, the world is waiting and Coventry is at the centre of this great hope. She is the driver of this big dream.
Everyone dreams of the great Olympic family, free of political interference, and illustrious in its bid to let athletes nature and showcase their talents regardless of region, country of origin or political affiliation. — Belgian ThinkTank.com
