LAUSANNE / AIPS: Olympic presidency candidate Kirsty Coventry opened up a gap between her and rival Lord Sebastian Coe in discounting introducing cash prize for medal-winning competitors.

Coe had upset a number of other federation leaders when the president of World Athletics introduced that innovation.

Coventry, the 41-year-old Zimbabwean, is aiming to become the first female and first African to lead the 130-year-old International Olympic Committee and she is the youngest among seven candidates running to succeed Thomas Bach in the election in Greece on March 20.

Asked about prize money in a Q-and-A session with members of AIPS, she said: “Personally I’m not a fan of prize money. I would rather try to identify new ways of better supporting athletes on their journey to becoming an Olympian.

“For me, as an athlete, that was the hardest time for me. It was hard to find sponsorship, it was hard on my family, and the Olympic Solidarity scholarship that I managed to receive really added a lot of value.

“So I would rather put more focus on identifying direct funding to athletes before they get to the Olympic Games, and then after the Olympic Games, once they retire how do we help them in that next phase of life?

“I also think that there are opportunities with technology today to leverage the Olympic Games as a platform. At the Games in Paris, we saw a number of athletes leverage their social media platforms, being able to become influencers, promoting different products and making a living for themselves.

“That, for me, is more of where I’d like to focus my time, rather than a one-off payment at the Games.”

Another increasing delicate issue swirling around the Games concerns transgender competitors, particularly after the boxing controversies in Paris.

Coventry, the only women among the seven candidates, said: “We, as the IOC, need to take a little bit more of a leadership role. I would like to sit down with all the international federations and come up with a common framework for all of us to work with. It will obviously depend on the sport.

“We have equestrian where men and women already compete against each other, so the topic is not as big in certain sports, but each federation, over the last few years has worked diligently with their medical teams to come up with rules and regulations that they feel best protects the female category for their sport.

“As the IOC we should take a leadership role in understanding all of these differences and take a leading role in the decision that we’re going to make in order to protect the female category. I think (a solution) is possible.”

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