About Kirsty Coventry
Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward is a Zimbabwean politician, sports administrator, and former competitive swimmer who is the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). She has served as the president of the IOC since 23 June 2025, and is the first woman, the first Zimbabwean, and the first African to hold the office, while also only the second non-European president of the IOC, following Avery Brundage who left office in 1972. Coventry served in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe from September 2018 to March 2025 as the Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation until September 2023 and then as Minister of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture. A former 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. In 2016, Coventry retired from swimming after her fifth Olympics, having won the joint-most individual medals in women's swimming in Olympic history. Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe called her "a golden girl", and awarded her US$100,000 in cash for her 2008 Olympic performance.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.