As a seven-time Olympic swimming medallist, Kirsty Coventry knows a thing or two about navigating choppy waters. But the new International Olympic Committee president now faces the biggest set of challenges to global sport since the 1980s, when boycotts rocked the Moscow and Los Angeles Games. As the 41-year-old prepares to take over from Thomas Bach in June, what issues will she face?
Protecting women’s sport
One of Coventry’s key pledges has been to protect women’s sports and athletes. On Friday, she pointed out that as Zimbabwe’s sports minister she had removed the football federation’s board after female referees reported being sexually harassed. She has also talked about a blanket ban on transgender athletes from the female category.
“Protecting the female category and female sports is paramount,” she says. “There is more and more scientific research. It is very clear that transgender women are more able in the female category and can take away opportunities that should be equal for women.”
Coventry says she wants to set up a taskforce to address how best to protect women’s sport, which became a global controversy at the women’s boxing tournament in Paris, when Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting won gold.
In January, she said lessons needed to be learned but added that there “needs to be a little more sensitivity” when it comes to athletes with a difference in sex development condition, who were reported as female at birth but then underwent male puberty.
The return of Russia?
There is no obvious path for the IOC to lift its suspension of Russia’s Olympic body while four regional sports councils in eastern Ukraine remain under Russian control. However, Coventry says she is against banning countries from the Games and has promised to set up another taskforce to look at “some guiding frameworks” when it comes to Russia.
As things stand, only a few Russians will be competing as neutral athletes at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in 11 months’ time. However, it will be fascinating to see whether a Russian return – Putin’s favourite sport is ice hockey – could be part of a peace deal in Ukraine.
Dealing with Donald Trump
Coventry takes over at a time of heightened geopolitical uncertainty around the globe and with Trump threatening to ban people from certain countries from entering the United States. Casey Wasserman, the chair of the 2028 Los Angeles Games, has said: “Irrespective of politics today, America will be open and accepting to all 209 countries for the Olympics”, but no one can be quite sure what Trump will do next.
Coventry has promised not to flinch. “I have been dealing with, let’s say, difficult men in high positions since I was 20 years old,” she said on Thursday, when asked about Trump. “We will not waver from our values: solidarity and ensuring every athlete that qualifies for the Olympic Games has the possibility to attend the Olympic Games and be safe during the Olympic Games.”
Who will host the 2036 Games?
A key issue for the IOC is finding a host for the 2036 Olympics, which is being fought over by India, Qatar, Turkey and several other countries. One thing to watch is if Coventry sticks with Bach’s policy of allowing a “preferred bid” to be fast-tracked into exclusive negotiations.
If that happens, India will be seen as favourites. Coventry is close to the influential IOC member Nita Ambani, whose family is the richest in Asia. There is no set timetable for a decision on 2036, but Coventry has hinted that she will involve IOC members more in the decision-making process.
The climate crisis
The climate crisis not only threatens the traditional slot for the Summer Games of July and August but also raises existential questions for the Winter Olympics. Coventry has called for greater flexibility, pointing to how the marathon in Tokyo 2020 was staged in Sapporo where it was cooler. Do not be surprised if a Games in India in 2036, and perhaps Saudi Arabia in 2040, are held in the autumn.
“We have an incredible amount of interest in the Games for 2036 and 2040 from new regions, which is exciting,” she said. “It opens up the question of the timing of the Games and we need to be proactive about that, both summer and winter.”
Keeping the Olympics relevant
The Olympics has proven remarkably resilient in a rapidly changing media and entertainment landscape, with the Paris Games a resounding success. Last week, NBC announced this month it had reached a four-year extension of its rights for the Olympic Games, valued at $3bn (£2.5bn), to take them through to 2036. But a key task for Coventry over the next eight years will be to acquire new top-tier sponsors, most likely from India and Saudi Arabia, and keep the Games relevant globally, especially among young people.