Who is Kirsty Coventry?
August 11, 2008 by Sandy Mitchell
Filed under Sports Rumors
It seems that with all of the publicity being heaped on the stars of the Olympics, like Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff, that there are dozens of noteworthy athletes from another the world that are not being talked about. One such swimmer is Kirsty Coventry from the south African nation of Zimbabwe. Few outside the swimming world have heard of this 24-year-old Auburn University alum, although she won three medals at the Athens Games: a Gold, a Silver, and a Bronze.
Coventry’s performance in Beijing has been impressive so far. She earned the Silver Medal in the 400 IM just behind Stephanie Rice of Australia. Both women were under the world record time set by Katie Hoff (the Bronze medalist) in the American Olympic swimming trials. Coventry also set a new world record during the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke event. In addition to those two events, she is entered in the 200 IM and the 200m backstroke events.
Coventry is something of a national hero in Zimbabwe and sees herself as a unifying influence in her racially-divided country. She is a past Zimbabwe’s Sports Woman of the Year and the 2004/2005 SEC Conference Female Athlete of the Year.
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] took the Gold Medal in the women’s 100m backstroke event, followed by Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry for the Silver and Margaret Hoelzer of the United States for the Bronze [...]
[...] 200m women’s individual medley, clocking a world record time of 2:08.45. Just behind her was Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, followed by Natalie Couglin of the United States. Rice won Gold earlier in the week in [...]
[...] Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe finally got to stand atop the medal stand in Beijing, winning the women’s 200m back stroke event with an Olympic record time of 2:05.24. Margaret Hoelzer of the United States earned the Silver Medal and Reiko Nakamura of Japan was awarded the Bronze. [...]