Kirsty Coventry has plenty of complicated issues to tackle as the new president of the International Olympic Committee.
Hosting the 2028 Summer Games in the United States − where President Donald Trump has sparked an international trade war, banned visitors from a dozen countries and orchestrated widespread deportations of residents − is certainly among them.
Yet in her first news conference since officially assuming her role as the highest-ranking official in global sports, Coventry indicated on June 26 that she has few concerns about the 2028 Los Angeles Games. She relayed ‘reassuring’ reports from local organizers about their conversations with government authorities, including at the federal level, and said she is confident that the Games will reflect the Olympic movement’s core values.
‘There is an incredible willingness to see that the Olympic Games are a huge success,’ said Coventry, who is the first female president of the IOC. ‘The reason I mention that is that that gives us faith, as the Olympic movement, that that platform will be there to ensure that our values are stuck to. But (also) that our values will also be heard and that we will be able to ensure successful Games for our athletes.’
The Trump administration recently banned visitors from 12 countries from entering the United States. And, according to multiple news reports, it has considered expanding the ban to include people from 36 other nations − including, notably, Coventry’s home country of Zimbabwe.
Though the enacted ban includes a carveout for athletes, relatives and coaches who are entering the country to attend a major sporting event, such as the 2028 Olympics, it raises questions about the ease with which the rest of the world will be able to enter and exit the United States for sporting events. Senegal, for example, recently canceled a women’s basketball training camp in the U.S. after several of its players were denied visas, according to a Facebook post from the country’s prime minister, Ousmane Sonko.
Officials with the IOC, the LA28 organizing committee and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee have all downplayed such concerns, while attempting to highlight the cooperation of U.S. government officials so far.
‘We all believe that sport is a great unifier,’ Sarah Hirshland, the CEO of the USOPC, said on June 18. ‘… And we have every assurance from the administration that they will be great partners in helping ensure that we are a great host country.’
For Coventry, the Los Angeles Games are just one item on a lengthy to-do list.
After formally taking over for outgoing president Thomas Bach earlier this week, Coventry met with more than 70 members of the IOC to seek input and brainstorm ideas for reform within the movement. Following those conversations, she said the group identified two main areas as ripe for immediate reform: The Olympic Games bid process and the participation of trans and intersex athletes, which she described as the ‘protection of the female category.’
‘It was pretty much unanimously felt that the IOC should take a leading role in bringing everyone together to try to find a broad consensus (on that issue),’ Coventry said.
Coventry, a former Olympic swimmer, said the IOC will soon establish working groups to examine both issues, though she did not provide any additional details on who will be part of the groups or any timelines for recommendations.
Coventry said she will spend parts of her first year as IOC president traveling to meet with various Olympic leaders. When asked by a Chinese journalist about plans to visit the country, she said a trip had been tentatively scheduled for November. When asked by a Ukrainian journalist about a possible visit to Ukraine, she expressed a desire to visit all Olympic stakeholders ‘and that will, at some point, include all of the (national Olympic committees) around the world.’
‘I think that sport plays an incredibly important role in today’s world, and especially the Olympic Games — where we see the best of humanity,’ Coventry said. ‘… You see grit, you see determination, you see teamwork — all things and all messages that are not just relevant but have to be passed to the younger generation today, to remind them and to show them that it’s not all doom-and-gloom. And that we actually, if we can celebrate in the diversity that we are and that we have, we can really work towards creating something great.’
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.