Lausanne | Switzerland: 04 March 2020: Executive Board Meeting held in Lausanne. Photograph by Greg Martin/IOC
Africa’s most decorated Olympian of all time, Kirsty Coventry, is motivated to provide more funding to federations, national associations and athletes who need it most in a bid to fuel their medal ambitions.
Coventry, who was a recipient of an Olympic Solidarity scholarship, says that when it comes to finances she wants to focus more on funding than prize money.
“The Olympic Solidarity Scholarship is hugely instrumental in taking a bit of pressure off my family, giving me a bit of income where I could travel to meets that I need to go and compete in during the summer time when we weren’t in class or school,” she said.
“It allowed me to pay for my coach to travel with me when we went to World Championships…and that is a huge advantage.
“Some of the programmes I would like to focus on when I step into the presidential role is focusing more on that. I want to see how we can create programmes and strengthen programmes that are going to help Olympians become Olympians and become Olympic champions.”
Zimbabwe’s “Golden Girl” Kirsty Coventry says that she’ll never ever forget the day she returned home from the Athens Olympics in 2004 and was greeted by raucous celebrations in Harare.
Coventry, who is in the running to be the International Olympic Committee’s first women and African president, says it was that seminal moment that showed her the power of sport and how it could be used to inspire future generations.
“Looking back now, that was the promised moment because I got to not just see how sports can bring people together but I got to live it,” she said.
“I know that sport has this power and in the love that we live in today which is very divided, very divisive, I really think we have an important role to play in trying to ensure that we continue to inspire the new generations.”
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