While the Olympic Games are now behind us, some stories worth noting are only dribbling out now. One of them is one of the more cringe moments you’ll see in the history of news conferences.
This was Kirsty Coventry’s first Olympic Games as the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but they weren’t her first games.
She actually participated in five Olympic Games as a swimmer representing Zimbabwe, starting at the Sydney games in 2000. Over the years she won seven medals: two gold, four silver, and one bronze.
Coventry also took her place in the IOC as an “athlete member” in 2013. She went on to chair the Athletes’ Commission and serve on the IOC Executive Board from 2018 to 2021. In 2021, she was elected an individual member, and in 2023, she was re-elected to the IOC’s executive board.
It’s safe to say the Olympics have dominated her life at every level. With a resume like that, you’d think she could answer questions about the Olympics at a news conference without much coaching, but Coventry herself may be the first to tell you that’s not the case.
The new IOC chief held a news conference right before Sunday’s closing ceremonies in Italy. It was a wrap-up event, a time to put a neat little bow around these Olympic Games and move on. But that’s not how it turned out.
Coventry looked blindsided by questions about a number of things, most of them topics which could have easily been anticipated as possible questions she’d receive. And even if she hadn’t prepared at all for this press event, given her immersion into all things Olympics for over two decades, she should be able to answer these questions on the fly with no preparation.
One reporter asked her about German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had commented that Germany putting a bid in to host the 2036 Olympics would be “historically problematic.” His point was that it would be a little uncomfortable since that year would be the 100th anniversary of when Adolf Hitler hosted the Summer Games in 1936.
Coventry looked bothered and said, “Frankly, and I’m looking at my team because I was not aware that Germany had made any comments in and around 2036.”
International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry snapped at her PR team, repeatedly saying ‘I was not aware’ during a news conference, in response to questions about recent events, including a statement from Germany opposing the 2036 bid due to historical sensitivity. pic.twitter.com/xH2dQNtGCF
— DW News (@dwnews) February 20, 2026
“I’m not aware of that” and “I’m looking at my team” became an awkward theme of this press event.
A New York Times reporter asked her about whether a “whistleblower” exposed some shenanigans around the 2014 Sochi games. In asking the question, the reporter said that the whistleblower had notified the World Anti-Doping Agency that the “current chair of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency was directly involved with widespread doping surrounding the Sochi games.” The reporter added that they had intelligence that indicated the “IOC was aware of this.”
Looking more and more uncomfortable, she said, “OK, I’m really looking at my team and maybe someone needs to be dismissed because I’m not aware of that either.”
She added, “I would be very interested to find out more about it. So, if you could share it directly with me that would be very important information and knowledge.” Mark Adams, her communications director, was in the room and immediately added that he had not “seen that.”
Coventry, speaking specifically to the Times, said, “Well, if it’s on The New York Times, again, I’m looking at my team to be like, ‘What happened, guys? Where are we?’”
On another matter, a reporter asked her about Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) leader Gianni Infantino joining President Donald Trump’s international Board of Peace.
Predictably, Coventry responded, “Well, I wasn’t aware that we had an IOC member front and center…so I don’t really have much to say about it.”
Amateur mistakes
I’ve been involved in hundreds of press conferences over the years, and I can’t tell you how many rules Coventry broke. It’s like she’s never been in front of the press before, or never received any coaching whatsoever. The overarching problem is that on most of the topics Coventry was asked about, she should have been aware of everything, no excuses. It’s not her PR team’s job to inform her of things that, as IOC president, you need to know simply from a management perspective.
It’s not uncommon for reporters to spring new information on you in the middle of a press conference. That’s no reason to get knocked off your game. If you hadn’t heard the information before, don’t make the assumption that when a reporter confronts you with it it’s true. It very well may not be. Even if the information that’s new to you has already been verified by the reporter as true, you can still say something like, “I appreciate your question, but we haven’t had the chance to verify on our end that what you’re saying is true, so we’d like to follow up with you later.”
- Rule #1: Never accept the premise of the question if it contains something that is new to you.
- Rule #2: It’s always okay to tell the reporter you will investigate and follow up.
- Rule #3: Know when to shut up.
Also, you shouldn’t need to look at your team when you hear Germany may have discussed the possibility of hosting the games in the context of the 100th anniversary of the Hitler games. It’s the easiest thing in the world to just say you understand the sensitivities, and then move on.
As for her obvious lack of preparation, sure it’s very possible her team did not adequately prepare her, but she’s the head of the IOC. She’s the one who has to make sure she has the right people in place for all eventualities. One very important role on the communications team is to have their ear-to-the-ground so to speak.
Watch the news for anything and everything that could become a story that affects the IOC. I’m sure they have monitoring tools that crawl the web 24/7 with keywords so that the IOC is notified the second something seems out of place in the coverage.
The fact that they were in the midst of the Winter Games is no excuse. You can and should specifically assign a small team to actively look for fires to put out while the world watches.
If you don’t have such contingencies in place, the only thing that could make it all worse is when you have an incompetent chief executive who is so befuddled that she thinks there is ever a time you take your team to task in front of the world press. It’s amateurish, and it demonstrates where the real problems lie.
Coventry may have been a swimmer, but in this job, she’s in over her head.
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