PuraVida Sports

IOC President-elect touches on importance of infrastructure development, how Olympic Solidarity Programme catapulted her to Olympic glory, her leadership philosophy and why she loves challenges…

By Elias Makori in Costa Navarino, Greece

Elected the first female President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last week, at 41 the youngest, and the first African to ascend to the top seat, Kirsty Coventry looks back at her time in the USA on an Olympic Solidarity swimming scholarship with a deep sense of gratitude.

And also, most appropriately, how the Olympic Solidarity support has now come full circle with a beneficiary rising to become head of the Olympic Movement.

“I had to go to the States on a full scholarship. There was no other option,” she explains her move from the Harare pool to that of Auburn University in Alabama during this exclusive interview at the Costa Navarino Resort after her March 20 election as IOC President.

“If I wanted to go to the States to pursue swimming, identifying schools that would give me a full scholarship was the only option. So, when I was able to have access and apply for Olympic Solidarity (funding), it changed everything! 

I could afford to go and have roast chicken on a weekend instead of tuna salads… It changed the simplest things, but a lot for me to be a better athlete, and I was really grateful for that.

I remember I was 17 when I left Zimbabwe going to the States. I went to Auburn University.

I had not even been to the States before, but I had met some of the (US) coaches and had held conversations with them.

I was quite nervous… I remember landing in Atlanta just not knowing what really to expect, coming from Zimbabwe, this small, little country, and even within the country Harare is small and everyone knows everyone else…

But it was also exciting, because you didn’t know what to expect and you are going to a school where the priority was training and getting a good education.

I was extremely fortunate that when I arrived at Auburn, I was warmly welcomed by 60-plus athletes – the men’s and women’s team that trained together, and I automatically had 30 sisters!

It was an incredible environment for me to be in because in Zimbabwe, I had been training by myself for so long and now I was in an environment where, one, I wasn’t the best, and, two, everyone was working towards a goal of making themselves better.

We were on the pursuit of becoming NCAA (US Collegiate) champions – we didn’t know if that was going to be possible, but as a team, we went in and won, and our first year was completely unseen.

They (Auburn teammates) are friends and family for life, so it was very impactful for me.

We won three out of four NCAA championships in my time, and we lost the one to (arch-rivals) Georgia!

This played a huge role in my life in terms of giving me a platform – I was very grateful to Auburn because it was one of the universities at that time that were very embracing of foreign athletes. Not all universities were, and are.

One of my American teammates was Margaret Hoelzer….we were in the same year, we swam together, swam the same races and we were roommates, and in Beijing (Olympics) we got to stand on the podium together.

Someone got to interview her and asked ‘do you not feel like you are training with the enemy… you are creating an opportunity for a foreign athlete to potentially beat you, and one who has beaten you in the past’, and response was so incredibly awesome and powerful, because she turned around and said: “If I want to become an Olympic champion, I wanna know that I’m beating the best in the world and that that person I’m beating has had the exact same opportunities that I have had.”

Her saying that was so incredibly powerful.

Creating Opportunities in Africa

Not all athletes can benefit from scholarships like Coventry, and there’s need to create opportunities within the continent, something the new IOC President supports.

“Within Anoca (Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa), we are discussing on how, as a continent, can we create spaces for athletes to not have to go and train somewhere else,” she explains.

“A lot of conversations have already started with Kenya. Kenya is an incredible hub for our marathon runners, so how, as a continent, can we come together, put some money together and create a space in Kenya for all of our marathon talent, and then maybe further south, in South Africa, that becomes more of a swimming hub, and you’ve got your sprinters in Senegal, and when you come to Egypt and Morocco, maybe that will be more of a focus on shooting or archery…

There are different sports… and instead of having the financial burden of having all this infrastructure done in a country at once, how can we spread it across the continent?

These conversations are happening, and this is very exciting for the continent and it will allow, in the future, for more athletes to train at home.

But, again, it’s not just about the infrastructure, it’s about the coaches, and again it’s not just about the coaches, it’s about having access to competition.

Right now, in the college system, you are competing every weekend or every second weekend…. you don’t have that possibility in Africa.

We really have got to make sure that system works extremely well and is set up very specifically and could be potentially changing quite a bit.

Infrastructure Challenges

Talking of infrastructure development, what legacy does Coventry leave in Zimbabwe from her term and Sports Minister?

“Our National Sports Stadium had never sat with the ministry before,” she reflects.

“It was run by the local government ministry. We fought quite hard for it to be transferred to us and that was done right in the middle of Covid.

We had been given a really good budget to fix and get the stadium to Fifa standards and when Covid hit, like in many African countries, pretty much all of our entire budgets were sent back into the healthcare system.

It has taken us quite some time to get out of that.

I have had conversations with Fifa and Caf on how, as a country, do we find a compromise. We want international soccer being played in Zimbabwe, but where they want the level of the stadium to be, is it realistic?

When I have to go, as Sports Minister, and say I want X amount of dollars to do this… I can’t justify it when we have money that needs to go to schools, and roads and education…

They (Caf and Fifa) have been very understanding, and especially Caf have been working with us, hand in hand each month, to identify a specific project.

Like right now we are renovating water articulation, we are redoing our turf, we’ve got bucket seats coming in…

It just takes a longer time and my question to them is: If its gonna take us that much time to eventually get there, what other things are then required to be upgraded?

There are a number of conversations with Fifa by numerous countries knowing that we want to be playing international soccer, continental soccer or regional soccer, but how can we do that in an affordable manner, and the really good thing is that they are open to having that conversation.

Philosophy On Overcoming Challenges

Beating the field to be Olympic medallist multiple times and the most successful African Olympian, beating a strong field to become IOC President… Coventry certainly has a way of overcoming huge challenges!

She shares her philosophy: “The biggest thing for me is when I’m setting myself a new goal, or looking at trying to achieve something new, I’m really not giving much power to the potential challenges that it brings, but I look more on the opportunities: What could this do? What opportunities could this open up?; What message could this send?; How could I be of value?; How could I change that?; How could I impact?

So, that really for me is the gut feeling. I go with my gut feeling a lot. I trust my gut, and my gut has always led me down the right path.

I do like challenges – and it’s funny that yesterday, one of my colleagues was like ‘you are enjoying all of this (IOC elections tension)!’, and I said ‘it goes back to my athletic times, right before a race and you are in the waiting room with the other seven competitors and you are about to walk out, and you’ve done the work…’

I really do enjoy challenging myself. 

I enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone and doing something new, and knowing that sometimes you are going to fail and it’s about picking yourself up, trying again or just moving forward and learning from it.”

• elias.makori@ymail.com

Tomorrow: In the fourth and final installment of our interview with Kirsty Coventry, the new IOC President opens up about her husband, family life, juggling between raising young children and the heavy task at the IOC. She also makes a commitment to champion the fight against sexual harassment and Gender Based Violence against women in sport.