International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry found herself involved in a bizarre press conference in which she threatened ‘dismissal’ to her ‘team’ for failing to brief her on questions to expect.
Instead of seeing out her first Winter Games by revelling in its successes, Coventry reacted poorly to queries on FIFA president and IOC member, Gianni Infantino, joining Donald Trump’s peace board; the potential for an Olympic Games in Germany in 2036 – exactly 100 years after the Nazi Olympics and developments on Russian systemic doping issues at Sochi Winter Olympics.
She suggested she had been blindsided by those questions and pinned blame on a team which includes £420,000-a-year communications chief Mark Adams.
On each occasion Coventry said her staff had not made her aware of the developments in question and in her frustration remarked that someone needed to be dismissed.
Interestingly, long-term IOC comms chief Adams has been recently linked with a switch to working for his friend Sir Keir Starmer after the Prime Minister’s director of communications Tim Allan stood down.
However, with a generous salary north of £420,000, Adams may not be too keen on switching bosses, despite Coventry’s outburst which, if anything, should have taken place behind closed doors.
Coventry, who became the first woman and African to be elected as IOC President last year, was speaking in a press conference on Friday, the same day that Germany President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had said that it would be inappropriate for the country to host the 2036 Olympics as they will be exactly 100 years after the Games were hosted by Nazi Germany.
When asked about the opinions of the IOC over this, Coventry said: ‘Frankly, and I’m looking at my team because I was not aware that Germany had made any comments in and around 2036. So I don’t really have an opinion on it.’
Soon after that, another reporter asked Coventry about ‘a known whistleblower who had informed WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) that the current chair of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency was directly involved with widespread doping surrounding the Sochi Games and that they ‘had information that the IOC was aware of this’.
To this, Coventry replied: ‘OK, I’m really looking at my team and maybe someone needs to be dismissed because I’m not aware of that either. But I would be very interested to find out more about it,’ she said.
Another question added to her frustration when she was asked whether she would investigate IOC member and FIFA president Infantino over his involvement in what was described as a ‘clearly political event,’ after he held up a contract he had signed with the Board of Peace while wearing a red ‘USA’ cap.
Coventry replied: ‘Well, again, I was not aware of it. So now that you guys have made us aware of it, we’ll go back and then of course, we’ll have a look into it.
‘The Olympic Charter is very clear on what it expects of its members.’
An IOC spokesperson has since said that Infantino’s presence at the inaugural meeting of The Board of Peace this week alongside United States President Donald Trump and other heads of state does not violate any Olympic Charter rules on political neutrality.
Meanwhile, Germany remain in the running to host the 2036 summer Olympics, despite president Frank-Walter Steinmeier calling it ‘historically problematic’.
The German Olympic Sports Federation say they remain open to hosting the 2036, 2040 or 2044 Games in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg or the Rhine-Ruhr region.
The 1936 Berlin Games are widely remembered for being used as a Nazi propaganda tool by Adolf Hitler after athletes performed salutes.
Coventry, who beat Lord Sebastian Coe to be named IOC president in March of last year, has been a very visible figure at the Winter Olympics.
She choked up as she told reporters that it had been an ’emotional morning’ when Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was kicked out of the Olympics in one of the most controversial episodes in Games history.
Heraskevych refused to replace a helmet depicting victims of the Russian invasion, and Olympics chiefs gave no leeway in their rules around political messaging.
‘I was not meant to be here, but I thought it was really important to come here and talk to him face to face. No one, especially me, is disagreeing with the messaging, it’s a powerful message, it’s a message of remembrance, of memory,’ Coventry said.
‘The challenge was to find a solution for the field of play. Sadly, we’ve not been able to find that solution. I really wanted to see him race. It’s been an emotional morning.’
At Sunday’s closing ceremony, the Zimbabwean former swimmer, 42, hailed the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics as a ‘new standard for the future’.
‘You delivered a new kind of Winter Games and set a new standard for the future,’ she said.
