Barely an hour after Kirsty Coventry had grow to be probably the most highly effective determine in world sport on the comparatively tender age of 41, she confronted a sequence of verbal grenades about how she would possibly deal with Donald Trump in her new position.
What would the brand new president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee reply, the primary interrogator requested, if the American president tried to trigger hassle in the course of the Los Angeles Olympics by banning athletes from sure nations?
There was a brief smile. After which got here a flash of metal. “I’ve been coping with let’s say troublesome males in excessive positions since I used to be 20 years outdated,” replied Coventry. “What I’ve discovered is that communication might be key. That’s one thing that can occur early on.
“We won’t waver from our values,” she added. “Solidarity and making certain each athlete that qualifies for the Olympic Video games has the chance to attend the Olympic Video games and be secure in the course of the Olympic Video games.”
It was a mightily spectacular reply. And it additionally despatched a transparent message. Coventry is perhaps inexperienced. However she is able to cope with no matter her temporary entails, whether or not it’s coping with Presidents Trump, Putin and Xi, the weaponisation of sport, or the challenges of steering the IOC by way of an unsure decade.
She was equally fast footed when requested about whether or not extra wanted to be completed to guard girls’s sports activities after the boxing controversy on the Paris Video games. “My stance is that we are going to defend the feminine class and athletes,” she replied. “I need to work along with the worldwide federations. And we’re going to try this by establishing a job pressure that can look and analyse all the pieces.”
Maybe we must always not have been stunned. Within the murky world of Zimbabwean politics, Coventry has proved adept at dodging the pitfalls and rising to the highest. That ascent began early on the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the place she was hailed as Zimbabwe’s “golden woman” by Robert Mugabe after successful three medals.
The dictator used the identical phrase after she gained 4 extra medals in Beijing in 2008, however Coventry confronted criticism for accepting $100,000 (about £55,000) in prize cash on state tv at a time when Zimbabweans had been struggling starvation on account of hyperinflation.
However she confirmed she may additionally use her place to supply a gentle rebuke, stating that: “President Mugabe is aware of one thing wants to alter as a result of so many individuals are hurting.”
There was extra controversy in 2018, when she grew to become the sports activities minister within the cupboard of president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is called ‘The Crocodile’ for his ruthlessness – and whose democratic credentials are flimsy to say the least.
The British authorities, for example, is amongst these to situation sanctions in a bid to encourage Zimbabwe “to respect democratic ideas, chorus from actions, insurance policies or actions which repress civil society in Zimbabwe and to adjust to worldwide human rights regulation and respect for human rights”.
Nevertheless, Coventry has not distanced herself from Mnangagwa. Fairly the opposite. Final yr they had been even seen dancing alongside one another at a public occasion through which Zimbabwe stated it wished to bid for the 2027 Cricket World Cup.
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Coventry has additionally confronted criticisms about her effectiveness as sports activities minister. Zimbabwe has been banned from internet hosting nationwide workforce video games by the Confederation of African Soccer since 2020 due to unsafe stadiums – one thing that Coventry has not fastened.
In the meantime on the Paris Olympics, Zimbabwe despatched a delegation of 74 individuals for 9 competing athletes, elevating questions over whether or not it was an efficient use of taxpayers’ cash.
Coventry defended her position and actions in authorities after her victory. “When it comes to my nation, I selected to try to create change from the within,” she stated. “It will get criticised, and that’s OK, as a result of on the finish of the day, I don’t suppose you possibly can stand on the sidelines and scream for change. I consider you must be seated on the desk.”
One factor is evident. The political expertise she has acquired in her dwelling nation have proved exceptionally helpful on the IOC, an organisation she joined in 2013 and rose quickly to be Thomas Bach’s chosen successor.
Not like most of the candidates, she didn’t have an costly PR workforce serving to her throughout her marketing campaign. Certainly, her manifesto was written by her and her husband. And the one communications skilled who helped her did it without cost – and was not even together with her in Greece.
However, crucially, she had the patronage of Bach, the formidable and highly effective IOC president since 2013. Below his watch, over two-thirds of IOC members voting within the election had been appointed. And within the last days stress was utilized to ship the end result he wished.
The unanswered query now could be what occurs subsequent. Will or not it’s ‘continuity Bach’, pursuing a top-down and authoritarian strategy that enables members little say? Or will she enable a bit gentle into an organisation that desperately wants it? No matter occurs, the subsequent eight years might be fascinating – and difficult.
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