Brisbane Olympics receive a shot in the arm from ‘deep relationships’ with incoming IOC president Kirsty Coventry

A teenage Kirsty Coventry broke Zimbabwean team rules to watch Cathy Freeman at the Sydney 2000 opening ceremony, but the new IOC president was inspired, and could be the game-changer Brisbane 2032 needs.

Kirsty Coventry’s historic ascent to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is being hailed as the game changer that could help get Brisbane’s dawdling preparations back on track.

After being elected to an initial term of eight years, starting from mid June, the former champion Zimbabwean swimmer will still be in charge of the Olympic movement when the Brisbane Games officially begin on 23 July, 2032.

The first woman to be appointed to the most influential job in world sport, Coventry already has plenty of big challenges ahead of her, but Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) President Ian Chesterman said her recent experiences as an athlete meant she would get up to speed very quickly.

“From pool to presidency, it’s taken her nine years, she’s a very contemporary leader,” Chesterman told this masthead.

“She’s gone from a competitor in 2016 to be ready to lead the organisation in 2025 and that really makes her relevant I think in terms of what a Games looks like and how it operates so that’s really important.”

Australian Olympic Committee President Ian Chesterman. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Chesterman said Coventry’s success was an unexpected bonus for Brisbane because she was already well versed in the preparations from her role as chair of the co-ordination commission.

Coventry, 41, will have to relinquish that position when she officially replaces Thomas Bach as president but Chesterman said her close working relationship with Brisbane’s organisers meant she was already ahead of the game.

“There’s just so many existing relationships with her because she’s been the chair of the CoComm,” he said.

“This has been going on for a number of years and so everybody’s developed really deep relationships with her and that’s always just a fantastic foundation moving forward now with her in the role of president.”

Along with IOC Athletes’ commission member Jess Fox, Chesterman was in Greece for this week’s IOC presidential election as one of two voting Australian members.

Jess Fox is among a new generation of women athletes making waves at the International Olympic Committee. Picture: NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Founded in the late 1890s, the IOC has previously been run exclusively by men, and Chesterman the magnitude of Coventry’s election wasn’t lost on anyone in attendance.

“There was a lot of emotion in the room after the vote, particularly from some of the female members and members of the Athletes’ Commission. It really resonated with other women in the movement,” Chesterman said.

“Because it was an emphatic victory, it obviously meant that she had a huge amount of support within the room and that just showed up. There was a lot of energy, a lot of emotion and it was really exciting to be part of.”

Unaware at the time, Australia played a big role in igniting Coventry’s unlikely rise to the most powerful job in world sport.

In high school at the time, Coventry competed at her first Olympics at Sydney in 2000 and while she didn’t win any medals at her first Games, she became deeply inspired by seeing Cathy Freeman light the cauldron.

“Because I was a swimmer and swimmers compete from day one, I was told not to go to the opening ceremony,” she told this masthead in a previous interview in late 2021.

“But I’ve always thought that watching the flame get lit is just a powerful moment so I went anyway.

“To be in Sydney and to see Cathy Freeman, and in the way in which the flame was lit, that will just be ingrained in my brain forever. It sort of lit a flame inside of me too.”

Kirsty Coventry won seven medals, including two gold, in Olympic swimming. Picture: Martin Bureau / AFP

Hailing from a landlocked African country, Coventry went on to win seven Olympic medals, including gold medals at Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) before embarking on a career in administration.

Another champion swimmer who has gone on to achieve great success outside the pool and championed the cause of women, Australian Sports Commission chief executive Kieren Perkins praised Coventry’s election win as a watershed moment for Olympic sport.

“This is a new era for the IOC on many fronts with a new type of leader in terms of Kirsty Coventry being from a new continent, a female and relatively young to take on this influential role,” Perkins said.

“I think we are seeing renewal and modernisation within the IOC which is a positive thing during this crucial time for world sport.”

Originally published as Brisbane Olympics receive a shot in the arm from ‘deep relationships’ with incoming IOC president Kirsty Coventry