Coventry: 'World can learn from China'

The only female on the shortlist, the first from Africa and the youngest candidate on the ballot — Zimbabwe's former Olympian Kirsty Coventry knows she has a unique aura among those running for the International Olympic Committee presidency.

Having embraced her representation of women and Africa as a pillar of her bid, Coventry, an IOC member and sports minister of Zimbabwe, would prefer that, rather than her rarity, her proposals and solutions for a better future of the Olympic Movement do the campaigning, with the all-important vote that could potentially change the course of her career set to take place on March 20 in Greece.

Streamlining the IOC's revenue structure and better protecting and serving athletes in the face of mental, psychological and financial challenges, particularly caused by geopolitical tensions, are among her priorities for leading the movement into a stronger, sustainable and relevant new era, said the two-time Olympic champion swimmer.

"We want to engage with young people. We want to ensure that the Olympic Games remain the greatest sporting platform in the world," Coventry said during an exclusive interview with China Daily on Monday.

"If we look at everything needed to better serve the movement and the athletes, to better serve the development of their sports, a lot of it comes back down to revenue ... We need to consistently build up more revenue. That would be a very big focus (of my tenure), and something that I would like to look at right away (should I win the vote)," said Coventry, who's a current member of the IOC executive board and its finance and Olympic solidarity commissions.

In addition to the already robust TOP sponsorship program, which recently added Chinese brand TCL as a replacement for Japanese brand Panasonic in the home appliance category, Coventry suggested creating more opportunities around continental and regional events, such as World Cup circuits under a respective sport's international federation, and the Olympic Qualifying series, together with new partners out of the TOP field to generate more revenue for athletes' welfare, scholarship and grassroots promotion.

Born and raised in Zimbabwe before developing her athletic career in the United States, Coventry, who's won a total of seven medals across five editions of the Games from 2000-2016, believes her background in understanding two cultures — from a developing nation of the Global South and one of the world's leading economies — has given her an advantage in pushing ahead with reforms representing global interests.

"I've seen both sides, and that's what I want (IOC) members to understand — that I understand both. I do think that it would really show the movement is truly global," said the 41-year-old, who also chaired the IOC's athletes' commission from 2018-2021.

The challenge that lays ahead for the Olympic Movement to tap into its full potential in solidarity, despite the huge progress that has been made, remains a tough one, Coventry admitted, citing current geopolitical tensions and conflicts.

Yet, she vows to deal with it by immediately establishing a "task-force dedicated to better support and protect NOCs and their athletes (hailing) from all these conflict areas".

"But, at the end of the day, we should ensure that we are remaining neutral to the best of our ability," she stressed.

As the youngest among all the candidates, Coventry is competing against a strong field, which includes World Athletics president Sebastian Coe from Britain, Spain's IOC vice-president Juan Antonio Samaranch and the International Cycling Union president David Lappartient of France, to become the 10th IOC chief, after outgoing president Thomas Bach steps down when his second term expires in June.

As fervent an advocate as her competitors for making the Olympic Games more youthful and gender equal, Coventry, however, calls for prudent scrutiny of any changes to the Games program, particularly keeping the size and cost of the sporting extravaganza in check whenever a new addition is proposed.

"I said in my manifesto that we can't continue to grow just for growth's sake," said Coventry, who was one of the key promoters for surfing's inclusion into the Olympic program as vice-president of the International Surfing Federation from 2017-2024.

"It's a complex issue, and we have to keep the Games sustainable. We have to ensure that the sports are relevant, but also diverse and also hold importance in a local context.

"If the Games get bigger and bigger, that's just automatically going to get more expensive, which is not what we want to do."

To push for sustainability and integration of urban development, Coventry, as well as other candidates, has urged future Games hosts to learn from China, a country where she enjoyed some of her athletic career highlights during the Beijing 2008 Summer Games.

"I absolutely loved 2008, and I loved coming back in 2022 for the Winter Olympic Games to watch the curling competition on my swimming pool," Coventry said of revisiting the Beijing aquatics center, nicknamed the "Water Cube", which was later repurposed as an ice sports venue at Beijing 2022.

Coventry won four medals, including her second career gold in 200m backstroke, to rousing cheers at the Water Cube in 2008.

"I was, like, this is the best thing ever," she said. "I love the sustainability. I love the legacy. I thought it was so clever.

"This is where I think China does such an incredible job — its commitment to building infrastructure that can be multipurpose and can be used for different things.

"This is definitely something that I think the rest of the world can learn from."