Kirsty Coventry
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(Redirected from Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward)
7-time Olympic medalist Kirsty Coventry was elected as the 10th president of the International Olympic Committee in 2025
Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (née Coventry; born 16 September 1983) is a Zimbabwean competitive swimmer, politician, and sports administrator who will become the 10th president of the International Olympic Committee in 2025. She is the first woman and first African to be elected to that position. Coventry has served as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe since September 2018.
Swimming Highlights
- A former Olympic swimmer and world record holder, she is the most decorated Olympian from Africa.
- She swam competitively for Auburn University in Alabama, USA.
- She helped lead Auburn to the NCAA Championships in 2003 and 2004.
- In 2005, she was the top individual scorer at the NCAA Championships and captured three individual titles including the 200-yard and 400 yard individual medley, and the 200 yard backstroke for the second consecutive season.
- She was named the College Swimming Coaches Association Swimmer of the Meet for her efforts.
- She was also the recipient of the 2004–2005 Honda Sports Award for Swimming and Diving, recognizing her as the outstanding college female swimmer of the year.
- At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she became the first Zimbabwean swimmer to reach the semifinals at the Olympics and was named Zimbabwe's Sportswoman of the Year.
- At the 2004 Athens Olympics, she won three Olympic medals: a gold medal in the 200m backstroke in 2:09.19, a silver medal in the 100m backstroke in 1:00.50, and a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley in 2:12.72.
- At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, she won silver medals in the 200m backstroke and 200m individual medley. She was disqualified in the 400m individual medley and finished 14th place in the 100m backstroke.
- In 2008, she broke her first world record in the 200m backstroke at the Missouri Grand Prix in 2:06:39.
- At the 2008 Manchester Short Course World Championships, she broke her second world record in a gold medal victory 4:26:52 in the 400m individual medley. She won a second gold medal in the 100m backstroke in 57:10. She won 2 other gold medals in the 200m backstroke in 2:00:91 and the 200m individual medley in 2:06:13 as she was named as the FINA Female Swimmer of the Championships.
- At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she won a gold medal in the 200m backstroke in a world record time of 2:05.24 and three silver medals in the 400m individual medley, 100m backstroke, and 200m individual medley despite swimming under the existing world records in the 200m and 400m individual medley events.
- At the 2009 World Championships, she won a gold medal in the 200m backstroke with a world record time and a silver medal in the 400m individual medley, finished fourth in the 200m individual medley, and eighth in the 100m backstroke.
- At the 2012 London Olympics, she finished 6th in both the 200m individual medley and the 200m backstroke.
- She competed in her fifth Olympics at the 2016 Rio Olympics where she finished 6th in the 200m backstroke and 11th in the 100m backstroke.
- She is a member of the International Olympic Committee and was elected the Chairperson of the IOC Athletes' Commission, the body that represents all Olympic athletes worldwide in early 2018.
- She previously served on the FINA Athletes Commission.
