Kirsty Coventry

Kirsty Coventry
Coventry at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics
Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation
Incumbent
Assumed office
10 September 2018
PresidentEmmerson Mnangagwa
Deputy
  • Yeukai Simbanegavi
  • Emily Jesaya
Preceded byKazembe Kazembe
Sithembiso Nyoni
Personal details
Born
Kirsty Leigh Coventry

(1983-09-16) September 16, 1983 (age 41)
Harare, Zimbabwe
Nationality Zimbabwean
Political partyIndependent
SpouseTyrone Seward
Alma materAuburn University

Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (born 16 September 1983) is a Zimbabwean swimmer and politician currently serving as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe since September 2018. A former Olympic swimmer and world record holder, she is the most decorated Olympian from Africa. She is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and was elected the Chairperson of the IOC Athletes' Commission, the body that represents all Olympic athletes worldwide in early 2018.

Born in Harare, Coventry attended and swam competitively for Auburn University in Alabama, in the United States.[1] At the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens, Greece, Coventry won three Olympic medals: a gold, a silver, and a bronze,[2] while in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she won four medals: a gold and three silver. She was subsequently described by Paul Chingoka, head of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, as "our national treasure".[1]

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe called her "a golden girl,"[3] and personally awarded her US$100,000 in cash for her 2008 Olympic performance.[4] In 2016, Coventry retired from swimming after her fifth Olympics, having won the joint-most individual medals in women's swimming in Olympic history.

  1. ^ a b "Zimbabwe puts aside racial tensions to give hero's welcome to triple medal winner", USA Today, 25 August 2004.
  2. ^ "2004 Olympic Games swimming results". CNN. Archived from the original on 14 August 2004. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
  3. ^ "Kirsty Coventry: Success brings rare cheer to Zimbabwe". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 5 June 2008. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2022.
  4. ^ "Zimbabwe swimmer gets cash prize", BBC, 29 August 2008.