Kirsty Coventry will make sporting history if she is elected president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its General Assembly on Thursday (March 20,2025). She would be the first woman and first person from Africa to head the IOC.

She would also be the youngest since Pierre de Coubertin, the founding father of the modern Olympic Games. The Frenchman founded the IOC in 1894 and took over the presidency two years later at the age of 33.

Coventry, a 41-year-old former world-class swimmer from Zimbabwe , has always had a strong will and vision.

"When I was 9 years old, I told my dad I wanted to go to the Olympics and win gold. He told me it would be a rough road ahead, he explained how difficult it was just to make the Olympic team let alone win a medal, but he believed in me," she wrote in a Facebook post a few years ago.

At the age of 20, she made her dream come true. At the 2004 Games in Athens, Coventry won the gold medal in the 200-meter backstroke. Four years later, in 2008 in Beijing, she won gold again. In addition to those two gold medals, she collected four Olympic silver medals and one bronze. This makes Coventry Africa's most successful female Olympian of all time. The only African who has had more success at the Olympics is long-distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia – who won three gold medals (and two bronze).

"I have been to five Olympic Games, won seven individual Olympic medals, broken multiple world records and had one of the best World Championship careers of all time," Coventry wrote on her Linkedin profile.

"However, none of this is as important as what this success did and can do for others. It united my country where divisions caused by economic and political turmoil were crippling it, and it gave hope to people who thought their circumstances prevented them from following their dreams."

While still an active swimmer, Coventry was elected to the IOC Athletes' Commission in 2013. She represented the interests of athletes for eight years, including three years as chairperson. More recently, she has been a member of the IOC Executive Board.

The increased influence of the Zimbabwean has raised hopes in Africa that the Summer Olympics could be hosted on the African continent for the first time.

Although South Africa and Egypt have expressed their interest, Coventry has played down such expectations.

"The interest is there and now we need to ensure that we're working closely with all of these countries that are interested so that they fully understand the magnitude of the Olympic Games," she said.

The countries of Africa, Coventry said in a Q&A session organized by the Association of International Sports Journalists (AIPS), should "really strategically look from the African Union point of view on how we can develop through the All Africa Games our infrastructure that can then be followed up and used by an Olympic Games bid."

Coventry knows from experience just how tough such political processes can be. She has been Zimbabwe's Minister of Sport since 2018. She says she now has "definitely a thicker skin" than she used to as an athlete.

When asked whether she thinks trans women should be allowed to compete in women's competitions, she was evasive.

"100% it is necessary to find a solution," Coventry said. "I think that we as the IOC have to take a little bit more of a leadership role."

The Zimbabwean also avoided going too far out on a limb on another hot topic before the IOC election: the possibility of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing at the Olympics.

"I think above anything else it's our duty as the IOC to ensure that all athletes can participate at the Games," she said. "That's going to look different for a number of different athletes but at the end of the day I do believe that we need to find a holistic way of sadly dealing with athletes from conflict areas."

She was speaking in light of her experience competing for Zimbabwe at a time when the country was in political turmoil and under international sanctions.

"It could have been very easy for the international community to not allow us to take part. I look at (it) and say what would my life be today? I am grateful that I was not held accountable for what the leaders and governments were doing."

Kirsty Coventry is not only a sports administrator and politician, but also a mother. She gave birth to her second daughter less than six months ago. Her eldest is six years old.

"By the time she was one year old, she had already been to 10 different countries around the world," Coventry said.

"I have an incredible network of support from my husband and family. This is a normal way of life for us. I think it's a good way to show that women are just as capable as men even if we are to be expected to be full-time mothers, wives, daughters etc."

"We still have a lot of work to do, and I am excited about leading this movement," Coventry said of gender equality. "Women are ready to lead. I look at it as an opportunity to push through boundaries so that when my two girls are growing up, they don't have the same boundaries."

This article was originally published in German.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding