In 2004, Kirsty Coventry swam her way to three Olympic medals in Athens, including a gold in the 200m backstroke. For Zimbabwe, it was a sporting revelation — before that, the country’s only Olympic medal had come from the women’s hockey team at the ‘boycotted’ Moscow Games in 1980.
About 20 years later, Coventry returned to Athens to win again. She was elected President of the International Olympic Committee, becoming the first woman and the first African to head the organisation in its 131-year existence. “Greece seems to be my lucky charm,” she said.
Coventry won 49 of the 97 votes in the first round, comfortably ahead of her main rivals Juan Antonio Samaranch (28 votes) and Lord Sebastian Coe (8). Coe had radical ideas to change the functioning of the global body, but his dismal performance suggests that the members of the IOC voted for continuity. Coventry had the backing of the incumbent President, Thomas Bach, and the presence of 43 per cent women among the IOC members might have helped her cause, as Coe indicated.
But Coventry, now Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister, takes over an IOC adrift in choppy waters. There is a cast of complicated issues — Differences of Sex Development (DSD) athletes, Russia’s ongoing exile from the Olympic movement, and the Los Angeles 2028 Games set against the backdrop of a Donald Trump presidency.
Trump’s administration has already tightened border security, and there is a list of red-flag nations, according to a New York Times report — Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela, and Yemen — whose athletes might be blocked from competing altogether at the LA Olympics. Trump has also passed an executive order — Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports — which bars transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports events. The US President has tasked the Director of Homeland Security to “deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the Games.”
The implications are bleak. Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who took gold in the 66kg category in Paris, might not get a chance to defend her title in LA.
Lord Coe made his position clear in the election manifesto: firmly against the participation of transgender athletes. Coventry, however, has opted for cautious ambiguity, promising a task force “that’s going to look at the transgender issue and the protection of the female category.”
At 41, Coventry is the second-youngest IOC President, and she is at least going to be at the helm for another eight years. She can then seek another four-year term.
The focus will soon shift to picking the host for the 2036 Summer Olympics. India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey have expressed interest. The IOC, under Bach, moved from a traditional bidding process to a close collaborative partnership between the IOC and the potential host to ostensibly ensure sustainability and cost-effectiveness in the selection process.
With the IOC hosting its first gender-equal Games at Paris 2024, Coventry’s election can only be seen as another step towards bringing more inclusivity to the world of sport. Currently, only four out of 36 International Sports Federations are led by women, and a mere 24 out of 206 National Olympic Committees have female presidents, including India, with former Olympian P. T. Usha at the helm.
Still, whether the bond between Coventry and Usha — two Olympians navigating a historically male terrain — can tip the scales in India’s favour for 2036 remains to be seen.
