Kirsty Coventry prepares for Olympic Gold

July 29, 2008

This interview was conducted by News 8 Austin, a news channel in Austin, Texas.

AUSTIN, Texas – KIRSTY Coventry is headed to the Beijing Olympics in China as a member of Zimbabwe. Ricky Doyle caught up with her at Auburn University in Austin, Texas, in the United States.

Ricky Doyle: Alright, well, we continue to introduce you to Central Texas Olympians and joining us today is Kristy Coventry. Kristy, you’ll be swimming for Zimbabwe and yet you did your college swimming at Auburn, but the last few years you’ve been here in Austin training. I guess, first of all, how has that move to Austin been for you? Are you liking it here? And how’s the training going?

Kirsty Coventry: I am liking it. It’s been a great move. I followed Kim out here to keep training with her. I didn’t want to get used to a new coach. It’s been a great move. It’s a much bigger city than Auburn, so a lot more to do. And now that I’m done with college, it’s just great. I love the restaurant scene and the music scene, so it’s been a really good move.

Doyle: Sure. And you say ‘Kim,’ you’re talking about Kim Bracken who’s your coach.

Coventry: Yes.

Doyle: Obviously, now at UT. So you guys have been training together for quite a while. That relationship’s got to be pretty good by now.

Coventry: It’s really good. The first time we actually ever met was in Sydney in 2000, so this is pretty cool we’re getting to go to our third Olympics together and we’re both very excited. We’ve been training really hard and we just click really well together. It was one of the things I looked for when I was looking to come over to the States and keep swimming with the coach and how I connected with them and if I’m happy with the coach and how our relationship is, I swim a lot better. And I just kind of reacted to her really well and we kind of bonded with each other, so it’s a good relationship.

Doyle: Yeah, and what’s great is that she’ll be your Olympic coach. You mentioned you’ve already gone to 2000, then 2004 you win a gold, a silver, a bronze, which is unbelievable, so now going into the ‘08 games, how do you top that and what are you looking for this time?

Coventry: I know. You know, I’ve never been one to kind of tell anybody really what my specific goal is going in, so all I’m really going to say is we’ve been training hard. We’ve set really high goals and we’re going to go in and our goal is to do better than what we did in 2004. So, it should be pretty exciting. So, hopefully, those dreams and goals come true.

Doyle: And you’ve been swimming greatly. You’ve set a couple of World Records this year, so you’ve got to be feeling pretty confident just about the way you’re swimming.

Coventry: Yeah. Yeah, I think definitely getting those World Records has given me a lot more confidence and self-confidence, but you never want to get too confident and let that kind of play on your head a little bit. So, I’m definitely very aware of what other swimmers are doing and just taking control of things I’m doing, and just kind of pushing forward.

Doyle: We get a little bit spoiled here in the U.S. We’re so used to Olympians, but for you, being from Zimbabwe, I mean, what you’ve accomplished is such a big deal back there. What has the reception been like in Zimbabwe and just how important is it to the people back home?

Coventry: Yeah, oh my gosh. It’s been great. After 2004, I went home and I was at home for three days and it was just complete chaos; but it was great chaos because I had a couple thousand people meet me at the airport and we had people lining the streets and people with signs and the telephone just rang all day. We had to actually disconnect it at night, because we were like, oh my gosh, this is too crazy. But they are very supportive; everyone at home. It’s nice because I’m kind of still swimming and giving them at home some kind of hope that, you know, follow your dreams and it can come through and kind of shining that positive light on Zimbabwe, since some of the media stuff hasn’t been good lately. So it’s good to be that kind of positive influence and kind of shine that on people at home, which is exciting.

Doyle: And one thing that’s pretty exciting, we were talking earlier about this time is that your parents are going to be there to watch you. They didn’t get to go in 2004, but this time they’ll be there in Beijing.

Coventry: Yeah, I’m really excited. That’s probably the best thing. I’m looking forward to just seeing them, because I haven’t seen them since Christmas, and just being able to swim and them being in that arena and getting to see the atmosphere and just the Olympic spirit that has surrounded the Olympics. You know, it’s something they are going to love experiencing, so it’s going to be a lot of fun having them in the crowd.

Doyle: We look forward to watching. It’s Kristy Coventry. She’ll be swimming for Zimbabwe at the upcoming Olympic Games.