daniel chigunwe
SWIMMING icon Kirsty Coventry says she sees no problem in being a candidate to become the most powerful person in sport despite being a Minister in the Zimbabwean government.
Coventry, Africa’s most-decorated Olympian, is aiming to become the first woman to head the International Olympic Committee.
Coventry, who won seven Olympic swimming medals for Zimbabwe in the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games, says she aims to “challenge the status quo.”
She will run against six other candidates in March to succeed current IOC president, Thomas Bach.
British Olympic legend, Sir Sebastian Coe, is also a candidate.
Coe is also currently head of World Athletics.
At 41, she would also be the youngest IOC president.
Coventry, though, says being part of the Zimbabwean government has permitted her to reform from within.
“I have learned so many things from stepping into this ministry role. I have taken it upon myself to change a lot of policies within my country and how things are done,” she said.
“I think every country has its challenges and issues. Looking at specifically Zimbabwe, the 2023 election was the first time in over 20 or 30 years, where there was no violence.
“That’s a step in the right direction.”
Coventry says it would be a “huge thing” for the African continent if she was elected and would show the IOC is “truly a global organisation”.
“For Africa, it would open up, I think, many opportunities for different leadership roles to say, right, as Africa we’re ready,” she said.
“We’re ready to lead. We’re capable of leading. We have the support. Let’s go. Let’s do it.”
Coventry is dismissive of the claim that there are rumblings among IOC members about how ‘African’ she is, because she is white.
“They haven’t spoken to me about it,” she said. “This was a question that I had when I won my medals in 2004 and Zimbabwe was going through a lot of turmoil.
“I was asked by someone in the media, do you think the country will be happy that a white Zimbabwean won their first medal in 24 years?
“I, to be honest, was completely shocked because for me, I just see myself as a Zimbabwean. I was born there. My mother was born there. My grandmother was born there.”
She has even adopted as her IOC campaign slogan ‘Ubuntu’ which she says is an African philosophy:
Her ministerial role has allowed her to travel extensively, most recently to Davos for the World Economic Forum and the United Nations General Assembly last year.
The atmosphere there impressed upon her the importance of the IOC and its values of neutrality and uniting people. — AFP/Sports Reporter.
