Recently chosen International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry got here Sunday in her home nation of Zimbabwe to a hero’s welcome as her success is commemorated as a nationwide turning point.
The southern African nation has actually dealt with years of seclusion and sanctions by the United States and other Western countries.
The 41-year-old Coventry, who is likewise Zimbabwe’s sports minister, was the only female prospect in the IOC presidency race and ended up being the very first lady and very first African to be chosen head of the worldwide Olympic motion.
She beat 6 other prospects in the vote in Greece on Thursday, consisting of the head of world track and field, the head of worldwide biking and a member of Jordan’s royal household.
” It’s not simply my success, it is our success. We broke down barriers,” Coventry stated in Zimbabwe.
Dancers in animal fur kilts and head equipment made from bird plumes stomped the ground as part of a standard African folklore dance to the noise of trumpets and drums to invite Coventry home as she reached an airport in the capital, Harare. Lots of others, consisting of female cricketers, young karatekas and kids in school uniform cheered loudly.
” Males have actually controlled sport for so long, I am delighted that a person of our own is now at the really leading where she can take on the problems impacting ladies in sports,” stated Abigail Madera, a female boxing referee.
” This is not simply an individual success, it will put Zimbabwe on the worldwide phase,” stated Women Affairs Minister Monica Mutsvangwa at the inviting event at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport.
Coventry is an ex-Zimbabwe swimmer and was the back-to-back Olympic champ in the 200 meters backstroke at the 2004 and 2006 Games. She retired from swimming after the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 with 7 Olympic medals and is the most embellished Olympian from Africa.
Coventry was extensively applauded in her nation as a source of pride and a unifying figure throughout her swimming profession.
Her choice to take the task of sports minister in 2018 has actually been inspected, however, provided the Zimbabwean federal government has actually long been questioned over its human rights record and is routinely implicated of securing down on political opposition.
Critics in 2020 likewise implicated Coventry of gaining from political patronage after accepting a federal government lease on a farm that was taken throughout the nation’s typically violent land reforms that forced out about 4,000 white farmers for 10s of countless Blacks more than twenty years back.
A number of those critics have actually invited her election and published congratulatory messages.
Coventry has actually stated she will resign from her Zimbabwe minister’s task to transfer to the Olympic home city of Lausanne in Switzerland. Her eight-year term in charge of the IOC starts in June.
Pushing problems at the Olympic body consist of professional athletes’ advantages, Russia’s future after its suspension over the war in Ukraine, gender eligibility, and how to handle U.S. President Donald Trump with Los Angeles set to host the next Summer season Olympics in 2028.
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