(ATR) Olympian Kirsty Coventry tells Around the Rings her time on the IOC Athletes Commission was the impetus for standing for election on the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee.
Coventry is running for Vice-President of the ZOC, hoping to grow sport in her home country. She is running for one of the two open vice-president spots, and has submitted her name for the "Women in Sport" position according to local reports. The ZOC will hold its elections on April 30.
Although she has been based in the United States while training, Coventry says she has completed setting up a sport foundation back home and her time on the Zimbabwe Olympic Board proved essential.
"I’ve been spending more time in Zimbabwe... and I just wanted to be a little more involved in the day to day decisions and running," Coventry said to ATR. "I thought this would be the right time to get involved with the organization."
The "right time" for Coventry comes after serving on the IOC Athletes Commission since 2013. In her role in the IOC, Coventry also sits on the Tokyo 2020 Coordination Commission, giving her a firsthand view of how an Olympic Games is organized. Coventry says that perspective, along with her experience as a high-performance athlete, will help position her as someone to grow sport in Zimbabwe.
Ensuring young athletes get the right training at the club level along with investments to keep top coaches are the two biggest issues facing sport, Coventry says. She believes the sport infrastructure can be improved, and that sporting curriculum at the school level is where it needs to be. What needs to be addressed is keeping performance at an elite level once athletes have graduated from school and have moved on to training at sport clubs.
"As sport is becoming so professional, clubs are really far behind on allowing for that to continue after school," Coventry said. "Our coaches need to maintain their international exposure as much as they can with support of their federations, and the [ZOC]. I think just getting companies on board to recognize sportsmen and women as professionals and getting them on board and sponsoring will help."
After elections, Coventry says it is important for the ZOC to renew work with the country’s sports ministry to improve infrastructure. With that, then the committee will have the three main factors to see its athletes perform well on an international stage.
"We’ve got the kids, we’ve got the talent, now we just need to harness it."
Written by Aaron Bauer
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