“My memories are of the athletes embracing each other and just celebrating:” IOC member Kirsty Coventry talks about her Beijing 2022 experience

BEIJING — Kirsty Coventry returned to the city where she became the most decorated African Olympian in history, marveling at the sheet of ice covering the swimming pool in which she won an Olympic gold medal and three silvers in 2008.

And just as the Water Cube became the Ice Cube, Coventry has transformed into an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, with the Zimbabwean now immersed in issues affecting athletes. She plunged right in soon after the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games began and spoke about her experiences with Around the Rings.

IOC President Thomas Bach chose Coventry, the former chair of the Athletes’ Commission, to meet with pro tennis player Peng Shuai when current chair Emma Terho tested positive for COVID-19. Peng accused a high-ranking former Communist Party official of sexual assault, later denying the allegation.

“I had a couple of really nice interactions with her including a private dinner with the president,” Coventry told Around the Rings, noting that they also went to curling together and bumped into each other at a couple of other events including figure skating.

“She has given her side of the story to the Western media (in an interview with L’Equipe) and I think she has explained in details her perspective on the different issues. She really seemed very happy and well to me in our interactions. It was really good to see her, but I really can’t disclose much more of the content of our conversation and everything she wanted to share she has already.”

Coventry, who is Minister of Sports, Arts and Recreation in Zimbabwe, also has strong thoughts about the role of the entourage and protecting athletes’ well-being in light of the Kamila Valieva doping controversy. On Christmas Day 2021, the 15-year-old tested positive for a banned heart medication that supposedly increases endurance. However the results of the test were not known until after Valieva had competed in the figure skating team event, which the Russian Olympic Committee team won. After a Court of Arbitration ruling gave Valieva the right to compete in women’s singles, she had a disastrous free skate and placed fourth. Instead of comforting her, Valieva’s coach coldly scolded her.

“It’s been sad, really sad, to see this happen,” Coventry said. “An athlete’s welfare and well-being are more important than ever and we really need to continue to work — all organizations involved — to enhance the support for our athletes and hold members of the entourage accountable with the toughest appropriate sanctions for wrongdoing, especially in the area of doping and abuse and anything of that nature.”

“I feel very strongly about that. I think ways we can look at doing that is strengthening the system from the bottom to the top and we need everyone to work together collectively to protect and support athletes. We need it to go all the way down to a national level, and especially when there are minors involved we need to really ensure that we’re protecting them. Sport is about bringing people together and creating unity, and so a part of that is also having the responsibility of protecting and that’s what I feel we should be working towards.”

Valieva’s case has prompted questions about raising the minimum age for competitors, as well as about the current rules allowing “protected person” status to athletes under the age of 16.

“These are difficult questions,” Coventry said. “I do believe that for reasons of fairness there is a good argument that in a competition the same rules should apply to all participants independent of their age. But I do think at the same time, all federations and all stakeholders should be studying this carefully on a global level, and also sport by sport. It’s exciting to see the International Skating Union has really initiated this process.”

Coventry was 20 years old and a student at Auburn University when she won her first Olympic medals in Athens in 2004. She got the full set — gold in the 200-meter backstroke, silver in the 100-meter backstroke and bronze in the 200-meter individual medley

Four years later in Beijing, Coventry repeated as Olympic champion in the 200 back and also won silvers in the 100 back, 200 IM and 400 IM at the Water Cube, formerly known as the National Aquatics Centre.

“It was really amazing, pretty priceless actually, when I first walked into the Cube and saw that it was now an ice block and a beautiful setting for curling,” Coventry said. “I just thought, ‘Wow, what a huge legacy’ and how cool that was, that a venue can be used for so many different purposes.”

She took photos and sent them to her family and her former coach that showed her with the “Look of the Games” for Beijing 2008 in the background. A giant logo from the summer Olympics 14 years ago is still on the wall of the diving well, mostly hidden behind a giant screen that shows curling shots.

“It was really cool to see other athletes make their Olympic dreams come true in the same venue,” said Coventry, who attended the women’s curling gold medal game won by Great Britain over Japan.

Coventry said her lasting impression of the Beijing Games has been “watching the athletes embrace each other, cheer each other on, jump all over each other when one succeeds and they all achieve something incredible. I think those moments are really priceless for where we are in the world right now.

“And just seeing the respect and even the love that these athletes have for each other, from all different walks of life and countries, has been for me and is always the best memories from any Games. With COVID being the way that it’s been the last two years, we’re rarely in cultures where you could kiss and hug and embrace each other. We’ve not really been allowed to do that, and so seeing that here, where athletes have fully — with emotion and passion for their sport — congratulated each other and hugged each other, that for me is the most special.”

Coventry also said she will remember the volunteers. “In 2008 we really got to embrace the Chinese people,” she said. “While we haven’t had that, we have felt that love from all the volunteers who have been in this closed loop with us, and smiling and making our days easy and really putting a smile on our faces.”

Coventry said it was important for the world, the sports movement and “more than anything for our athletes” to hold the Tokyo 2020 (in 2021) Summer Games and Beijing 2022 Winter Games despite the pandemic conditions.

“When Tokyo was postponed,” she said, “it was hard and it was sad and it was a lot of work for everybody involved, all stakeholders. You can just see the athletes here in Beijing and in Tokyo were just so grateful that they had their Olympic platform and were able to overcome all of the challenges that have been thrown at them over the last two years.

“I think that’s maybe why my memories are of the athletes embracing each other and just celebrating and being so fulfilled and so joyous, and how they were celebrating because these Games have really shown us the importance of coming together and how sport can really be a vehicle to do that.”

While the Olympic Movement has made great strides to increase the number of women on the field of play and in leadership roles, Coventry said the work must continue.

“We still need to do more” she said. “We need that to filter through to federations at the international and national level. We need to see that filtering down to equal opportunities for female coaches, especially on national teams, because those numbers are still pretty low.”

The IOC has never had a female president, and some observers believe a woman could succeed Bach when his term expires in 2015.

“I’m really very fortunate,” Coventry said, “and I do not take it for granted that I am surrounded by incredibly strong, capable women in the IOC. The future is very exciting for female members in the IOC.”