Kirsty Coventry, Zimbabwean swimmer
Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (born 16 September 1983) is the current Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in the Cabinet of Zimbabwe as of September 2018. She is a Zimbabwean politician, former Olympic swimmer and world record holder, and the most decorated Olympian from Africa. She is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and in early 2018, was elected the Chairperson of the IOC Athletes' Commission, the body that represents all Olympic athletes worldwide.
Coventry attended and swam competitively for Auburn University in Alabama, in the United States. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens, Greece, Coventry won three Olympic medals: a gold, a silver, and a bronze, while in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing she won four medals: a gold and three silver. She was subsequently described by Paul Chingoka, head of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, as "our national treasure". Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe called her "a golden girl," and awarded her US$100,000 in cash for her 2008 Olympic performance. In 2016, Coventry retired from swimming after her fifth Olympics, having won the joint-most individual medals in women's swimming in Olympic history.