Woman of the day

As Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in celebrating international women’s day continuing to reflect of influential figures that have overcome gender barriers to registering success is fundament. It is thus from this background that we today reflect on the success of Zimbabwe’s most successful athlete of all time, Kirsty Coventry.

Kirsty Coventry is beyond reasonable doubt the country’s most successful athlete of all time. After bursting onto the swimming scene as a teenager at the 2002 commonwealth games held in Manchester, Coventry is a beacon of success.

In Athens Greece in 2004 Coventry won bronze in the 200m individual medley before scooping silver in the 100m backstroke. Coventry would go on to land gold in the 200m backstroke event.

In Beijing 2008 Coventry landed 3 silver medals and a gold at her most successful Olympic games. It was after Beijing that Coventry was handed due recognition by the then president Robert Mugabe who gave the swimming icon a diplomatic passport as well as a 100,000 US dollar reward for her efforts at the Olympic Games.  

Her post athletic career has been equally successful with Coventry running a foundation called heroes. Kirsty is also the chairperson of the International Olympic Committee’s athletes representative organ (The Athletes Commission). In 2018 President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa handed Kirsty Coventry with a ministerial post (Minister of Youth Sport, Arts and culture).

Her success on the sporting arena serves to illustrate the great work done by Kirsty Coventry who is undoubtedly one of Zimbabwe’s most Successful inidividuals.