Kirsty Coventry ready to “push boundaries” and “take tough decisions” if elected IOC president
The AIPS’ Q&A series “Let’s Talk to the IOC Presidential Candidates” got off to a great start on Monday, 24 February, with Kirsty Coventry sharing her views on how to address some of the challenges facing the movement that she hopes to lead in a few months.
Kirsty Coventry is aiming to become the first female and first African to lead the IOC. The 41-year-old Zimbabwean is aiming to become the first female and first African to lead the 130-year-old International Olympic Committee and she is the youngest among seven candidates running to succeed Thomas Bach in the presidential election scheduled for 20 March at the 144th IOC Session in Greece.
During the question and answer session, moderated by AIPS President Gianni Merlo, our journalist from Kazakhstan also had the opportunity to ask a question to the candidate.
Zarina Kozova from Kazakhstan:
– How do you plan to combat doping, especially concerning the complex political factors that influence this process?
– Above anything else, we have to ensure that the field of play is clean. So if there are rules and regulations that need to be followed, then those rules and regulations need to be followed. I am very clear on those things, because being an athlete, I had to fill out all the whereabouts. I feel that as athletes, we are held under a microscope, and so every other stakeholder should be held to the same accountability. Making sure that the field of play is clean and fair for all athletes is the number one priority. Because I think if we lose that, we lose the trust from our fans, we lose the trust of our sponsors. So we have to really ensure that our integrity remains strong.
AIPS Media Kazakhstan
