Kirsty Coventry

Kirsty Coventry

Personal information
National team	Zimbabwe
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	64 kg (141 lb; 10.1 st)
Website	KirstyCoventry.com
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Backstroke, individual medley
Club	Longhorn Aquatics
College team	Auburn University
Coach	Dean Price, Kim Brackin, David Marsh
Medal record Women's swimming Representing   Zimbabwe Olympic Games   2004 Athens 200 m backstroke   2008 Beijing 200 m backstroke   2004 Athens 100 m backstroke   2008 Beijing 100 m backstroke   2008 Beijing 200 m medley   2008 Beijing 400 m medley   2004 Athens 200 m medley World Championships (LC)   2005 Montreal 100 m backstroke   2005 Montreal 200 m backstroke   2009 Rome 200 m backstroke   2005 Montreal 200 m medley   2005 Montreal 400 m medley   2007 Melbourne 200 m backstroke   2007 Melbourne 200 m medley   2009 Rome 400 m medley World Championships (SC)   2008 Manchester 400 m medley   2008 Manchester 100 m backstroke   2008 Manchester 200 m backstroke   2008 Manchester 200 m medley   2008 Manchester 100 m medley Commonwealth Games   2002 Manchester 200 m medley All-Africa Games   2007 Algiers 50 m freestyle   2007 Algiers 800 m freestyle   2007 Algiers 50 m backstroke   2007 Algiers 100 m backstroke   2007 Algiers 200 m backstroke   2007 Algiers 200 m medley   2007 Algiers 400 m medley   2011 Maputo 100 m backstroke   2011 Maputo 200 m backstroke   2011 Maputo 200 m medley   2011 Maputo 400 m medley   2015 Brazzaville 100 m backstroke   2015 Brazzaville 200 m backstroke   2015 Brazzaville 200 m medley   2007 Algiers 100 m breaststroke   2007 Algiers 4×100 m medley   2007 Algiers 4×200 m freestyle   2011 Maputo 100 m butterfly   2011 Maputo 4×100 m medley   2011 Maputo 4×100 m freestyle   2011 Maputo 4×200 m freestyle   2015 Brazzaville 4×100 m mixed medley

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

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Coventry won three medals, including a gold medal in the 200 meter backstroke.

As a student at Auburn University, Coventry helped lead the Tigers to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, she was the top individual scorer at the NCAA Championships and captured three individual titles including the 200-yard and 400 y individual medley (IM), and the 200 y backstroke for the second consecutive season. She was named the College Swimming Coaches Association Swimmer of the Meet for her efforts. Other awards include 2005 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Swimmer of the Year, and the 2004–05 SEC Female Athlete of the Year. She was also the recipient of the 2004–05 Honda Sports Award for Swimming and Diving, recognizing her as the outstanding college female swimmer of the year.^[5][6]

At the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, Coventry improved on her 2004 Olympic medal count by winning gold in both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke and silver in the 200 m and the 400 m IM. She bettered her Olympic gold-winning 200 m backstroke time with a performance of 2:08.52. She was one of just two swimmers from Zimbabwe along with rising junior Warren Paynter. Her performance allowed her country to rank third in the medal count by nation. In addition, she picked up the female swimmer of the meet honors.

In Melbourne at the 2007 World Championships, Coventry won silver medals in the 200 m backstroke and 200 m IM. She was disqualified in the 400 m IM when finishing second to eventual winner Katie Hoff in her heat. Coventry finished in a disappointing 14th place in the 100 m backstroke in a time of 1:01.73, failing to qualify for the final. She continued her good form of 2007 by winning four gold medals at the International Swim Meet in Narashino, Japan. She led the way in the 200 m and 400 m IM as well as the 100 m and 200 m backstroke.

In 2008, Coventry broke her first world record in the 200 m backstroke at the Missouri Grand Prix. She bettered the mark set by Krisztina Egerszegi in August 1991, the second oldest swimming world record. Her new record was 2:06:39. Coventry continued her winning streak at the meet by winning the 100 m backstroke and the 200 m IM. Coventry is the third woman in history to break the 1:00 minute barrier in the 100 m backstroke, and the second to break the 59-second barrier.

At the 2008 Manchester Short Course World Championships, Coventry broke her second world record, setting a time, whilst winning the gold medal, of 4:26:52 in the 400 m IM. The following day saw Coventry win her second gold medal of the championships in the 100 m backstroke. Her time of 57:10 was a new championship record and the second fastest time in history in the event. Only Natalie Coughlin has swum faster (56:51). Day three of the championships saw Coventry break another championship record in qualifying fastest for the final of the 200 m backstroke. Her time of 2:03:69 was a mere four tenths of a second outside the current world record set by Reiko Nakamura in Tokyo in 2008. Coventry then bettered this time to take her second world record of the championships by winning the final in a time of 2:00:91. She then went on to shatter the short course World Record in winning the 200 m individual medley in 2:06:13. Due to her performances at the World Championships, Coventry was named as the FINA Female Swimmer of the Championships.

Coventry represented Zimbabwe at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.^[7] Coventry won the silver medal in the 400 m individual medley on 10 August 2008, becoming the second woman to swim the medley in less than 4:30, the first being Stephanie Rice who won the gold in the same event. Coventry beat the world record by just under two seconds, and was only just beaten by Rice to a new world record. Coventry, in the second semi-final of the 100 m Backstroke, set a new world record of 58.77 seconds. However, in the final of that event she was beaten to the gold medal by Natalie Coughlin. Coventry was again beaten by Stephanie Rice in the 200 m individual medley, despite swimming under the old world record. Coventry did defend her Olympic title in the 200 m backstroke, winning gold in a world record time of 2:05.24.

Awarded US$100,000 by President Mugabe for her success at the Olympics, Coventry gave that money to charity.^[8]

 

At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Coventry won a gold and a silver. She won the 200 m backstroke world title with a world record time and came second in the 400 m individual medley. She came fourth in the 200 m individual medley final and eighth in the 100 m backstroke final.

At the 2012 Olympics in London, Coventry finished third in her semifinal heat of the 200 m individual medley, just edging her into the final, where she placed 6th with a time of 2:11.13. In the 200 m backstroke, she finished outside the medals in sixth place with a time of 2:08.18.

Her fifth and final Olympic appearance came at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,^[9] where she repeated her 6th-place performance in the 200 meter backstroke from 2012, with a time of 2:08.80. She also finished 11th in the 100 meter backstroke. She retired after the 2016 Olympics.^[10]

In 2012, she was elected to the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Commission. She is serving as an IOC member for eight years.^[11] In 2023, she became an elected member of the IOC Executive Committee. In September 2024, she was announced as one of seven candidates in the running to succeed Thomas Bach as IOC president.^[12]

On 7 September 2019, eight days shy of her 35th birthday, Coventry was appointed Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in Zimbabwe's 20-member Cabinet under President Emmerson Mnangagwa.^[13]

Her tenure has received criticism from the arts community and others due to perceived inaction and lack of support.^[14]

Coventry was accused of having been misallocated farmland by Robert Zhuwao, former President Robert Mugabe's nephew, but was cleared after it was revealed in court that she received a completely different subdivision of the farm in question and that Zhuwao had abandoned his unrelated subdivision.^[15]

In September 2023, Kirsty Coventry was re-appointed as Zimbabwe’s Minister for Sports, Art and Recreation by the country’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.^[16]

Coventry attended Dominican Convent High School, Harare, in Zimbabwe until 1999.

On 10 August 2013, Coventry married Tyrone Seward^[17] who had been her manager since 2010. In May 2019, she gave birth to her first child.^[18]

With seven Olympic medals, Coventry is the most decorated Olympian from Africa. At the time of her retirement, she had tied with Krisztina Egerszegi for having won the most individual Olympic medals in women's swimming.^[19] This feat has since been equaled by Katie Ledecky. Coventry competed at five Olympics, from 2000–2016. She won all but one of Zimbabwe's Olympic medals.

• Gold in the 200 m IM (2:14.53)

• Bronze in the 200 m IM (2:12.72) – Zimbabwe's second Olympic medal
• Gold in the 200 m backstroke (2:09.19)
• Silver in the 100 m backstroke (1:00.50)

• Gold in the 100 m backstroke (1:00.24)
• Gold in the 200 m backstroke (2:08.52)
• Silver in the 200 m IM (2:11.13)
• Silver in the 400 m IM (4:39.72)

• Gold in the 200 m IM (2:13.02 CR)
• Gold in the 400 m IM (4:39.91 CR)
• Gold in the 50 m freestyle (26.19)
• Gold in the 800 m freestyle (8:43.89 CR)
• Gold in the 50 m backstroke (28.89 AR)
• Gold in the 100 m backstroke (1:01.28 CR)
• Gold in the 200 m backstroke (2:10.66 CR)
• Silver in the 100 m breaststroke (1:11.86)
• Silver in the 4 × 100 m medley (4:21.60 NR)
• Silver in the 4 × 200 m freestyle (8:38.20 NR)

• Silver in the 200 m backstroke (2:07.54)
• Silver in the 200 m IM (2:10.74)

• Silver in the 400 m IM (4:29.89 AR)
• Silver in the 100 m Backstroke (59.19)(58.77 WR semis)
• Silver in the 200 m IM (2:08.59 AR)
• Gold in the 200 m Backstroke (2:05.24) WR

• Gold in the 200 m backstroke (2:04.81) WR
• Silver in the 400 m IM (4:32.12)

• Gold in the 200 m IM (2:13.70)
• Gold in the 400 m IM (4:44.34)
• Gold in the 100 m backstroke (1:00.86 CR)
• Gold in the 200 m backstroke (2:12.40)
• Silver in the 100 m butterfly (1:02.20)
• Silver in the 4 × 100 m medley (4:24.01)
• Silver in the 4 × 100 m freestyle (3:57.81)
• Silver in the 4 × 200 m freestyle

• Gold 100m Backstroke (1:01.15)
• Gold 200m Backstroke (2:13.29)
• Gold 200m Individual Medley (2:16.05)

• World record progression 100 metres backstroke
• World record progression 200 metres backstroke
• List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (women)

• Official website  
• Kirsty Coventry at World Aquatics  
• Kirsty Coventry at Swimrankings.net  
• Kirsty Coventry at Olympedia (archive)  
• Kirsty Coventry at Olympics.com  
• Kirsty Coventry at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)  

Records
Preceded by Natalie Coughlin	Women's 100 metre backstroke world record holder (long course) 11 August 2008 – 27 July 2009	Succeeded by Anastasia Zuyeva
Preceded by Krisztina Egerszegi	Women's 200 metre backstroke world record holder (long course) 16 February 2008 – 5 July 2008	Succeeded by Margaret Hoelzer
Preceded by Margaret Hoelzer	Women's 200 metre backstroke world record holder (long course) 16 August 2008 – 3 August 2012	Succeeded by Missy Franklin
Preceded by Reiko Nakamura	Women's 200-meter backstroke world record-holder (short course) 11 April 2008 – 14 November 2009	Succeeded by Shiho Sakai
Awards
Preceded by First award Suzaan van Biljon Mandy Loots Karin Prinsloo	African Swimmer of the Year 2004, 2005 2007, 2008, 2009 2011, 2012 2015, 2016	Succeeded by Suzaan van Biljon Mandy Loots Karin Prinsloo Farida Osman
Olympic Games
Preceded by Brian Dzingai	Flagbearer for   Zimbabwe 2012 London 2016 Rio de Janeiro	Succeeded by Donata Katai Peter Purcell-Gilpin