Kirsty Coventry has vowed to focus on sport’s role in building a better world when she takes over as the new President of the International Olympic Committee later this month.
Coventry, a former Zimbabwean politician and Olympic swimming champion, will become the 10th IOC President when she succeeds Thomas Bach on June 24th.
Speaking at the close of this week’s first Olympism365 Summit entitled ‘Sport for a Better World’ in Switzerland, she pledged to build on the work started by the IOC under Bach, which focuses on organisations at all levels working together to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through sport.
PLATFORM
The Summit brought together over 300 representatives from 100 organisations across the Olympic Movement, United Nations agencies, development and financing institutions, civil society, for-purpose business, safe sport community and IOC Young Leaders.
In her closing comments to the Summit, Coventry told Bach: “I’m truly grateful for the initiatives that you started with this, because this has been a platform for all of us to ensure that we are not just always focused on elite sport, but focused on our second pillar as the Olympic Movement of building a better world through sport.”
The Olympism365 Summit: Sport for a Better World concluded with 68 organisations confirming 45 commitments to using sport as a tool to advance the SDGs. The IOC says these initiatives are projected to generate over 200million US dollars in value over the next four years towards building a better world through sport.
It is hoped the Summit represents a step-change in the way ‘sport for development’ is perceived across sport and society. In 2000 Nelson Mandela famously described how “sport has the power to change the world” – yet the potential of sport and physical activity-based interventions are still to be fully maximised, in terms of the social, health, economic and environmental contribution they could be making to society.
However, Bach is confident the IOC’s ‘Olympism365’ initiative can help to change that. He said: “This power of sport is no longer confined to abstract theory... today it is accepted as a tool that can change people's lives in tangible ways.”
He added: “The purpose of this Olympism365 Summit is not only to reflect on how far we have come, but, more importantly, to chart the course for the future. What we have built together over the past years is only the beginning. Now is the time to take these efforts — and the goals of the Olympic Agenda — to new heights.”
ENABLER
Bach underscored the collective effort needed to advance sport’s contribution to sustainable development. “The IOC is fully committed to strengthening the role of sport as an important enabler of the UN SDGs,” he said.
“We are doing so together with all of you. Together with our many partners from the UN family, from development institutions and from civil society, we are addressing 11 of the SDGs at the same time: peace, health, social inclusion, gender equality, sustainability and more.”
In an emotional closing speech, Coventry referred to the African proverb ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ as she reflected on the collective effort required from organisations at all levels and across numerous sectors, to build a better world.
“It really takes a village and this is just the start of the ever-growing village that we are going to be expanding upon from these two days,” she said.
“We heard the words ‘teamwork’ and ‘stronger together’. We heard collective actions. We spoke about being knocked down and getting back up again, being adaptive, being resilient and leaning on each other. These things embody sport. This is why we love it, this is why we live it and we breath it.”
“This initial forum and the call to action is one that is collaborative, one that is ensuring that we will have a lasting power, a lasting benefit for all the things we are trying to do.”
The Olympism365 Summit outcomes can be found here, and the full list of commitments and announcements is available here.
Read the full story at olympics.com
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