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≡ COVENTRY ON THE GAMES ≡
Always near the end of an Olympic Games, a news conference gives the International Olympic Committee President an opportunity to pronounce their feelings on what has transpired. IOC chief Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) opened her Friday session this way:
“I hope that you’re having a good couple of weeks and have managed to get out into these incredible venues and watch and experience the amazing atmosphere that Milano Cortina team have created for every single one of us.
“I have had the honor and privilege of traveling around in a beautiful Italian country and got to spend some time with athletes in all of the Villages and get to watch some magnificent performances around.
“I don’t think you can leave these Games without being inspired by what we’re seeing on the field of play.
“So, I really want to thank the Milano Cortina team, across all the venues, and all the Villages; really, it’s been amazing.”
She was asked about her evaluation of this wide-spread Games, in Milan and the mountains; she brought it back to the athletes:
“I’ve had the opportunity to go to all of the venues, across these Games and Villages, and the athletes are extremely happy. And they’re happy because the experience that the MiCo team and my team delivered to them have been the same.
“So we really tried very hard, and I have to thank the MiCo organizing committee for hearing from our Athletes’ Commission that the one thing that would be really important to the athletes of a widespread Games was to ensure that the experiences in each of the Villages would be exactly the same.
“And I’ve gone to every single Village and just about all the venues, and they are exactly the same. And I spent some time with some athletes in Cortina, who said they think that their experience in the opening ceremony was actually better than walking into the stadium, because they got to be so close with everyone in a small city, and they got to engage.
“And they were sharing some of the highlights with me, of seeing little kids from the windows, and they were waving and smiling, and they got to like run down and high-five them. You know, when you’re walking into a big stadium, you don’t get that close to the spectators, so they loved the fact that the team worked really hard on ensuring the experiences were not just going to be the same, but even better.”
She called the Milan Cortina Games “successful in a new way of doing things, in a sustainable way of doing things, in a way that I think many people thought that maybe couldn’t be done well, and it’s been done extremely well, and it surpassed everyone’s expectations, and that’s what we need to take away the Games.”
Asked about the impact of political issues drowning out the message of the Games, Coventry noted the audience the Games has generated:
“I think that when we look at just the pure viewership numbers that we’re getting across the globe, it shows that the Games can unify people, and they can bring people together. And I wholeheartedly still believe that we have a huge role to play in this world to allow for that to still happen, to remind of people of just what kindness looks like and what courage looks like, and respect looks like.”
She also pointed to the lessons everyone can learn from the athletes and what they demonstrate on and off the field of play:
“Last night, it was just the sweetest thing to watch the last figure skater – the Japanese figure skater [Ami Nakai, 17] – and she’s waiting for her scores, and I think we all realized she came third before she realized it, and then she realized it and she looked over to Alysa [Liu, 20], who had won gold, and she was like ‘oohhh’ and they ran up and hugged, and that is the best thing, right?
“They have so much respect for each other. They are inspired by each other, each other’s performances. And that, for me, is the greatest sign of everything: of peace, of unity, of respect. They choose to respect each other; it doesn’t matter where they come from.
“You have seen that on every single field of play across these Games, and I think that is truly just incredible. It’s why we’re sitting here. It’s why we have thousands of people, thousands of volunteers, thousands of staff on the MiCo, on the IOC team, thousands of broadcasters sharing these stories, these images. It’s what reminds us, hopefully, to be better humans, right?
“If you don’t want to walk away from watching that, and be like, ‘I’m going to be a better person,’ then maybe, yeah, we need to think about what choices we’re making. Because I don’t think you can not watch that and not want to walk away inspired by what they’re showcasing for us.”
So what how is she feeling about her first Games as IOC President?
“My first impression is that it goes very quickly and I can’t believe we’re already at the end!”
Coventry was asked a series of questions about events, people and statements from outside the Games and either wasn’t familiar, or said they would be dealt with later.
Right now, she’s still enjoying the Games, which end on Sunday.
¶
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