Africa's best takes one final plunge

Zimbabwe native looking to make history in Rio

The African with the most Olympic medals is one of the great distance runners from Kenya or Ethiopia, right?

Nope.

It's a swimmer from Zimbabwe.

Like Michael Phelps, Kirsty Coventry is going to the Olympics for the fifth and final time, and she's swimming for one more little slice of history in the Rio de Janeiro pool.

Phelps has the all-time Olympic record with his medal haul of 22, but Coventry needs one more podium finish at her last Olympics to be the first female swimmer to win eight individual medals.

That's not an arbitrary stat. It underlines how Coventry, from a southern African nation with very little Olympic success (apart from hers) has done it all by herself. No help from relay teammates to boost that medal count.

Zimbabwe has won eight medals in total at the Olympics, and seven of them have been provided by Coventry, a two-time gold medalist in the 200-meter backstroke.

The country's only other medal is a women's field hockey gold won at the boycotted 1980 Games in Moscow.

Coventry is already Africa's best at the Olympics. As for the other mark, she's tied with Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi with seven individual medals in the pool. Rio is her last chance to edge ahead of Egerszegi.

At 32, Coventry is on her way out. She knows it, and can make light of it.

Who's the swimmer to watch at the Rio Games?

"Me!" she responded, with a laugh.

"In all seriousness the field of swimmers is so strong right now, it's crazy," Coventry wrote in an email exchange.

"I remember saying how strong it was in London (in 2012), but Rio will be even tougher."

Of her rivals, Coventry rates Americans Camille Adams and Katie Ledecky highest.

"Camille will get you out of your chairs when she is racing. And then there is Katie. She will blow your mind. They are the whole package: hard working, competitive, confident, talented, beautiful ... and filled with positive energy and kindness."

Coventry's been pretty good, too, basically representing her country at the Olympics single-handedly over the past 16 years, and ending up with more medals than any other African athlete. In the pool, too - not on the running track, normally the most fertile ground for African athletes.

"Making the Olympic team is a huge accomplishment, going to five Olympics is incredible," she wrote. "But winning this number of medals in a sport that is not strong in Africa is unbelievable."

Like Phelps, Coventry made her Olympic debut as a teenager in Sydney in 2000.

In Rio she will focus on her favorite race and the one that's brought her two Olympic golds, the 200 backstroke. She's also qualified in the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley.

Is there one more medal in there somewhere? It will be tough. She didn't manage to get on the podium in London four years ago.

Coventry grew up around swimming and the Olympics. She remembers watching the 1992 Barcelona Games on TV and telling her parents she wanted to go to the Olympics.

She went to the Sydney Games while still in high school. She broke through in Athens with the first of her back-to-back Olympic titles.

Coventry attended Auburn University in Alabama, winning NCAA swimming championships while she studied. She was desperately grateful for an Olympic scholarship that helped her prepare for Beijing. She also broke the world records in the 100 and the 200 backstroke.

Makes sense, then, that she stays around sport and the Olympic movement.

Coventry is now a member of the International Olympic Committee and serves on the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency's athletes' commissions. She has clear opinions on the big issues affecting the Olympics right now.

And on the Zika virus and the problems it has presented for the Rio Olympics, Coventry said she never once considered skipping the Games.

"Brazil is going to put on a great show. It's going to be an awesome Olympics with some outstanding performances and I can't wait to get there," she said.

One last medal. But if not, it's no big deal.

"It's always been about a desire to make the Olympic team and represent my country," Coventry said. "That's always been my top goal."

(China Daily 07/30/2016 page10)