Not resting on her laurels since retiring from competitive swimming after her 5th Olympic appearance, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry is taking on yet another new venture. Already serving as a representative on the Foundation Board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), as a member of the WADA Athletic Committee, and, most recently, earning a Vice Presidency role of the International Surfing Association, Coventry is now a candidate for Vice President of her home nation’s Olympic Committee.
Running against the President of the Zimbabwe Volleyball Association, Federick Ndlovu, as well as the Vice-Chair of the Northern Region Division One Soccer League, Martin Kweza, the 33-year-old former Auburn Tiger is vying for one of two available Zimbabwe Olympic Committee Vice Presidents roles. The voting will take place at the ZOC’s upcoming Elective General Assembly on April 30th, with candidates for President, Treasurer and 7 Board members will also be decided.
Throughout her historic career as overwhelmingly Zimbabwe’s most-decorated athlete, Coventry collected 7 Olympic medals, including back-t0-back 200m backstroke gold medals at the 2004 and 2008 Games. She also was a mainstay on the World Championships scene, competing at every edition from 2000 through 2016. In Rio, Coventry acted as flag bearer and went on to place 11th in the 100m backstroke and 6th in the 200m backstroke.
In addition to her aforementioned work with WADA, she is serving on the Coordination Committee for the Tokyo 2020 Games and is a member of the Olympic Solidarity organization. In 2015, Coventry kick-started her own ‘Kirsty Coventry Academy’ in Zimbabwe with the goal of reducing drowning deaths within her home nation.