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Kirsty Coventry, the Minister of Sport, holds a number of records.

The 41-year-old former swimmer is easily our country’s most successful Olympian with seven medals across two Olympics. She won three at the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 in Greece; a gold in the women’s 200m backstroke, a silver in the 100m backstroke, and a bronze in the 200m medley.  

At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, she defended the 200m backstroke title and also added three silver medals.

That medal haul makes her Africa’s most decorated Olympian as well.

Yesterday, she was back to the country where her global Olympic dominance started — Greece — to cement her position as the leading Olympian on the continent.  Rather, she rose to world stage once again after her election as the president of the International Olympic Committee with a crushing majority.  

She got 49 votes, almost doubling her closest challenger, Juan Antonio Samaranch, who received 28. Five other contestants got between two and eight votes each.

From being Africa’s top individual Olympian to becoming the IOC’s first African president, Minister Coventry has sealed her status in the Olympic movement on the continent, and worldwide.

The records do not end there.  

She has become the first female IOC president in the organisation’s very, very long history. At the same time, she became the IOC’s youngest president. 

She succeeds Thomas Bach, probably, her strongest and most influential backer in the race, in June. The minister will serve for eight years.

Indeed, hers is an illustrious story of success and firsts.  

We are very happy that Minister Coventry has risen to this level. She will, as she proudly did as an athlete, fly the national flag high at the world stage. She will be our biggest sporting ambassador, marketing the country wherever she will go over the next eight years as IOC president.  

We acknowledge that she has assumed an international post and is expected to be every sportsperson’s president but we are hopeful that her presence at the top would help her country compete for podium finishes in future Olympics.  

Just eight Olympic medals for our country, seven of which were won by her, is a woeful record for us.  

Also, we are hopeful that her presence at the top will drive African Olympic performances as well.  

President Mnangagwa was really delighted yesterday that his ministerial appointment, the quality he saw when appointing her as minister in 2018, got a ringing global endorsement.

President Mnangagwa

“Congratulations to our own Kirsty Coventry on her historic election as the first female and first African President of the IOC. A proud achievement for Zimbabwe and the continent! Wishing her the greatest of success,” he wrote on X.