Kirsty Coventry

Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (née Coventry; born 16 September 1983) is a Zimbabwean politician, sports administrator and former competitive swimmer. She has been the president of the International Olympic Committee since June 2025. She is the first woman, the first Zimbabwean, and the first African to hold that position. 

Coventry was a member of the Cabinet of Zimbabwe from September 2018 to March 2025 as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation until September 2023. She was the Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture before.

She was an Olympic swimmer and world record holder. She is the most decorated African Olympian.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens, Coventry won three Olympic medals: a gold, a silver, and a bronze, and in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she won four medals: a gold and three silver. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe called her "a golden girl". In 2016, Coventry retired from swimming after her fifth Olympics.

Coventry was born in Harare on 16 September 1983 to Robert Edwin and Lyn Coventry. 

In 2000, while still in high school, Coventry qualified for the Olympics in Sydney. She became the first Zimbabwean swimmer to reach the semifinals at the Olympics and was named the country's Sports Woman of the Year. 

In August 2013, Coventry married Tyrone Seward, her swimming manager. In May 2019, she gave birth to their first child.

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Category:1983 births
Category:Living people
Category:Presidents of the International Olympic Committee
Category:Zimbabwean politicians
Category:Zimbabwean sportspeople
Category:Swimmers
Category:Olympic gold medalists
Category:Olympic bronze medalists
Category:Olympic silver medalists
Category:People from Harare