- Title: INTERVIEW: Coventry insists she can work with Trump, will protect women's sport
- Date: 20th March 2025
- Summary: PYLOS, GREECE (MARCH 20, 2025) (REUTERS) INTERVIEW WITH NEW IOC PRESIDENT KIRSTY COVENTRY (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW IOC PRESIDENT, KIRSTY COVENTRY, SAYING "Well, like you said, we need to sit down and analyse what we feel are the top priorities. There's a lot of different challenges. And as you mentioned, President Bach has faced many of those. I would like to say that ov
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: IOC president International Olympic Committee Kirsty Coventry LA28 Olympics
- Location: PYLOS, GREECE
- City: PYLOS, GREECE
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Europe,Olympics,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001049020032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:International Olympic Committee's newly-elected president Kirsty Coventry wants to sit down with United States president Donald Trump to make sure the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics are successful, she said on Thursday (March 20).
Coventry, who is Zimbabwe's sports minister as well as Africa's most decorated Olympian, said both the IOC and the United States wanted successful Olympics in three years time.
The LA Games present a major commercial opportunity, with the IOC seeking to create new sources of revenues, and the American market presenting new opportunities with the first summer Olympics in the United States in more than 30 years.
Several IOC members on Thursday expressed concerns over visas and entry regulations for athletes travelling to the LA 2028 Olympics, asking U.S. Games organisers for clarifications, given the recent developments in the United States.
Since taking office on January 20, Trump has announced a number of immigration-related executive orders that focus on stricter border policy, tighter visa vetting procedures and a crackdown on undocumented migrants in the United States.
"President Trump is a huge supporter of sport. There's never been a sitting president that has attended the Super Bowl," Coventry told Reuters in an interview following her election victory.
"He was the president at the time when LA was awarded the Games (in 2017). I truly believe that he wants the LA28 Games to be a huge success."
"It will take sitting down and having a good conversation with him, sharing with him our values and where we want to be, how we want LA to be successful and being very clear on the different priorities for us as a movement."
Trump has also banned transgender athletes from competing in sports, with the IOC currently allowing transgender athletes to take part in the Olympics. Trump has said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete at the LA Games.
There is no one universal rule for sport with each federation drawing up its own gender participation rules after the IOC urged them to do so in 2021.
"What we need to do... is bring the international federations together and the IOC, and try to take a joint decision on how we will protect the female category," Coventry said.
When asked if clear guidance would be issued prior to next year's Milano-Cortina winter Games to avoid a dispute similar to the one that overshadowed the Paris 2024 Olympics over the participation of two female boxers, she said it was something that needed to be looked at.
"I need to have the next few days to see how things line up. But when we look at it and sit down we will come up with a timeline," Coventry said.
She takes over from outgoing president Thomas Bach on June 24.
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