The International Olympic Committee’s president-elect, Kirsty Coventry, did not initially have designs on a role in sports administration until she was thrust into it, essentially by politics.
On 7 September 2018, Coventry found out, along with the rest of Zimbabwe, that she had been appointed as the country’s minister for sports, art and recreation. She was the only white person on the 23-member cabinet, a unifier, albeit briefly, of a nation divided by racial schisms and labelled the “golden girl” by the then-deposed president Robert Mugabe. As an athlete who was also seen as a patriot, in a country where non-compliance has had serious ramifications, she could not refuse the position.
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“It was not something I ever considered doing and I didn’t even know I was being considered for the role but I went with it,” she told this reporter, in the lead-up to the IOC presidential race.
Her tenure has since been stalked by suspicion. Coventry has aligned herself with the current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mugabe and has won two terms in office. Mnangagwa’s victories have been labelled as falling short of international and constitutional standards by organisations such as Human Rights Watch but Coventry steers away from that. Instead, she focused on the support he has given her ministry.
The most prominent example of that was in February 2022, when Zimbabwe’s Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) suspended its national football board, Zifa, amid allegations of fraud and sexual harassment of female referees by technical staff. Coventry knew the repercussions of that decision could be an international ban but she was willing to take the risk, with Mnangagwa’s backing.
“I sat in a room with some of the female referees who had been sexually harassed and abused and it was some of the most awful stories I had ever heard. That decision to step in and get rid of the board was completely the right thing to do,” she said. “Did it come with consistent backlash for 18 months? 100%. But I was very well supported in the decision. I am so grateful that the president stood by me and stood by our women.”
Fifa lifted its sanction on Zifa in July 2023 and set up a temporary committee to operate the organisation. Since then, Zifa has held an election and its governance is on track but Zimbabwe still cannot host international matches because their stadiums are not up to international requirements. As Coventry was delivering her news conference in Greece, Zimbabwe were playing a “home” World Cup qualifier against Benin in neighbouring South Africa.
At the same time, Coventry’s predecessor in the sports ministry, David Coltart, posted on X that it was a “shame” the team could not play at home and a “shocking statement of the state of our sport which has been in steady decline since 2018”. That directly correlates to Coventry’s tenure. Still, Coltart congratulated Coventry after the IOC election and issued this statement: “My hope is that she will act with integrity in future in this new role. Much will be demanded and expected of her as she represents Zimbabwe and Africa in this important position.”
Across the continent, the immediate reaction to Coventry’s IOC presidential appointment, was to hail it as a victory for Africans – with felicitations coming from everyone from the Confederation of African Football to the African Union – and for African-ness. Coventry based her campaign on the southern African philosophy of Ubuntu, which directly translated means “I am because we are”, and speaks to a collectivism that she hopes to instil at the IOC. “Any decision or action that I’m taking is going to impact you and vice versa, and so if we can make decisions that are best for the movement, in a sustainable manner, in a collective manner, and in a way that is securing the relevance for our movement, we will be stronger. It’s really about collaboration and coming together,” she said.
She has committed to ensuring every athlete who qualifies for the Games, regardless of nationality or political affiliation, can attend, to protecting the female category and to enhancing scholarship programmes for aspirant Olympians, such as the one she benefited from. After receiving the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship to Auburn University, Coventry graduated in 2006 with a degree in hotel and restaurant management. She competed in three more Games before retiring and setting up a swimming academy in Harare.
It is there that she learned the intricacies of navigating complex political landscapes, economic depression and the expectation that comes with being a high-profile former athlete in a position of power: “I believe that things are put in our path that hopefully lead us to something else. The ministry role was preparing me for what could come.”
It is also there where things are at their most tough, the coal-face of real life meeting fame and fortune. What also happened the day Coventry’s ascent to one of the most powerful positions in sport was confirmed, was the arrest and charging of two men for an armed robbery on her parents’ home 10 days ago. Among the items they are alleged to have stolen are her Olympic swimsuits. The men are due to appear in court on Friday.
Coventry, meanwhile, is understood to be travelling back to Zimbabwe imminently and will enjoy a few days of holiday on an African safari break. She will spend the next three months relocating herself and her young family, including two daughters under the age of six, to Lausanne in Switzerland before taking over from Thomas Bach on 24 June.
