Experience the Olympics beyond competitions

Editor's note: The Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, the first Olympic event being held on the African continent, kicked off on Oct 31. In an interview, Kirsty Coventry, the International Olympic Committee's first African president, shared her resonance with young people, and her insights into sports, competition and social life.

Q: Before we turn our attention to the Youth Olympic Games in Africa — the world's most youthful continent — tell us about your own childhood in Zimbabwe.

A: I grew up in Harare riding bikes around the neighborhood and going to the pool, or fishing in Lake Kariba on the weekends. We, my sister and I, were very lucky to have a very active, outdoor lifestyle.

We got to hang out at my mum's cousin's farm and play in the mud, jump in reservoirs and throw cow dung at each other … very normal kid stuff, which perhaps feels less normal for kids today.

Q: Have your travels to Senegal in the lead-up to Dakar 2026 felt a little bit like returning home?

A: I think everyone forgets how big Africa is. I mean, you could fit the US and China in the continent, so obviously there are a lot of differences across every country.

Having said that, we also share a lot of similarities. In most countries, you can walk down any street and everyone will say hi or wave. You don't have to know each other, it's just part of the African culture.

There's a feeling that's hard to put into words … that yes, makes Dakar feel very familiar to me. And what I'm really excited about is to share that feeling with everyone coming to Senegal and to Africa for the first time. I hope they feel the African spirit of friendliness, and respect for one another, and acceptance.

And one of the things I've personally come to love about Dakar is just how active and outdoors-oriented the city is.

You constantly see people out on the beach, training, playing sports, or simply spending time with their kids in the streets. It's really lovely to see, and it reminds me of my own youth, too.

Q: You got into swimming and uncovered your competitive streak fairly early on. Did the mud and bike rides give way to ambition, medals and records pretty quickly?

A: Well, yes … But it's funny, I sort of see my career in two parts: one in the lead-up to me winning my medals in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and then the end of my career in London 2012 and Rio 2016. There were completely different focuses at these two stages.

I got injured in 2012 and I knew I wasn't going to win medals, so I had to enjoy the Games in a different way. Same for Rio: I was just enjoying being an athlete and going out on my own terms. As I became older, I also learned to take in the little moments, the moments you take for granted when you are just focused on the end result.

You miss a lot of the other experiences when you are just focused on competing: the camaraderie between athletes, the friendships you create, the adventure of traveling around the world and getting to experience the local culture of these different places …You don't really allow yourself to enjoy all of that when you are so focused on medals and records.

And in my job today, these two different experiences allow me to give better recognition to an athlete's entire experience.

Looking ahead to Dakar 2026, I hope athletes get to experience the Olympic Movement beyond their competitions. Being driven by medals is not a bad thing — every athlete will go through it at one stage; but I think that being more closely connected to that latter stage of my career as an athlete is very helpful in my job today.

The athlete experience is central to my mandate, and I know firsthand that the experience is far broader than the podium moments.

Q: You've described learning to enjoy sports differently as you got older. Do you think young athletes today face pressures that you didn't?

A: I think social media brings a whole new level of pressure to athletes today, because they have no disconnect.

They finish their competition, jump straight on their phone and message their parents to let them know how it went, then jump to social media … and there's a lot more criticism and expectations that come from that world too.

As an elite athlete you do have power and you have a voice, and nowadays with social media, you have a platform too.

But that also means you might get pushed and pulled into doing something you don't believe in.

And that's on top of the other "normal" pressures of that age.

I was talking to a friend of mine whose daughter will be swimming in Dakar — in fact I taught her how to swim — and she will be going through school exams during the period, and so that's taking a toll.

I just hope she also takes time to enjoy the actual event and do all the fun things — concerts, exhibitions, slam poetry, fashion shows, circus arts, and much more planned in the city during it.

I think there's so much pressure from all sides when you are young, to be honest.

In the IOC, what we try to do is to put rules and regulations in place to protect athletes, so that they can make their decisions for themselves.

Creating this platform for the athletes called the Olympic Games also means we have a huge responsibility to protect them from external pressures.

Q: You often speak about community and Ubuntu, the ancient African philosophy of togetherness. At a time when so much of young people's lives happen through screens, do you fear we are losing something by becoming less connected to one another physically?

A: I think people are finding communities in different ways, and I also think these things go in cycles. I see a lot more people putting their phones down and wanting to reengage in face-to-face interactions lately.

To some extent we have to be okay with the fact that some of these communities live and breathe online now; but as parents, it's also part of our responsibility to encourage our children not to get lost in that world. When we go back to Zimbabwe, especially, I find it important for my girls to experience some of the things I did as a child. Our farm is a special place because there is no TV and no Wi-Fi, so the phones are pretty much useless over there.

We like it that way, because then the girls will literally have to go out and play in the mud and just be normal kids who interact with each other.

And that's where I also think sport can play such a big role for parents out there.

Getting their kids involved in sport is also about giving them the confidence to talk to another kid, right? Which in turn can create a sense of belonging. We have to be responsible for each other, to try to help each other be better humans.

And sport's power extends beyond those playing. One number that we got from Paris 2024 that I find really positive is that 80 percent of our audiences were still coming from TV.

Yes, we see people migrating to digital, of course, but the Olympic Games are still very anchored on TV, and what I think that means is that we really are a movement that people will sit down to watch together at home, rather than everyone in their own rooms on their own devices.

Q: You've now had time to put your own stamp on the IOC with Fit for the Future, which was built after a deliberate pause. Why was that approach important to you?

A: For me, it was important to take a moment to stop and reflect, and to have really open and honest conversations to identify what the road ahead could look like.

Fit for the Future is about going back to our roots in a way, and asking ourselves, as the IOC, what is our remit. It has given us an opportunity to take a step back and really think about how we evolve, how we come back to the core business of sport and the Olympic Games so that we can have a greater impact.

The world around us is changing quickly, and we need to be able to change with it, while staying true to who we are and what we stand for. It's about being open to new ideas, becoming more flexible in the way we work, and focusing our energy where we can make the greatest difference.

Ultimately, it's about making sure the Olympic Movement remains relevant and continues to have a positive impact for generations to come.

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