FORGOTTEN Zimbabwe was last week thrust into the spotlight after Sports minister Kirsty Coventry stunned the world by winning the International Olympic Committee presidency.
Africa's top Olympian catapulted her name to the annals of history by becoming the first woman and African to land the post in the 130-year-old organisation.
That she won the post in the first round ahead of what appeared to be fancied opponents was a testament to the confidence the voters had in Coventry in taking the Olympic Movement to dizzy heights.
The brickbats thrown at Africa's top Olympian, while unprecedented, show that the “more fancied” candidates in the race had underestimated her pedigree.
Coventry is not the late former President Robert Mugabe's golden girl but a Zimbabwean who won the country's first gold medal at the Olympics after nearly a quarter of a century of waiting. The Golden Girls, the hockey team, won Zimbabwe’s first medal at the 1980 Olympics.
The country had to wait for 24 years for another gold medal.
Of the country's eight medals won at the Olympics, Coventry hauled seven — two gold medals, silver (four) and one bronze.
She has been Zimbabwe's poster girl and stood with the southern African country at a time when the country was turning into a pariah State due to disputed elections, the breakdown of the rule of law and an economic crisis.
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Coventry stuck with Zimbabwe when cash-rich nations were signing up top athletes from the continent to enhance their chances of winning medals.
At a time when sports administrator Edgar Rogers decided to dump Zimbabwe to retain his Commonwealth position after the country exited the bloc, Coventry clung to Zimbabwe at the cost of forgoing participation at the Commonwealth Games.
As the country basks in the glory of Coventry’s election, it must make her job easier by addressing some of the housekeeping issues that remain unresolved in the past 25 years — governance deficit and breakdown in the rule of law.
Coventry's victory in the Women’s Month emboldens the girl child who was unsure whether she would ever shatter the glass ceiling.
Zimbabwe should seize the opportunity and take advantage of the benefits emanating from this extraordinary victory.
For a country that has hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons, this is a silver lining. It shows that something good can come out of a country long considered a pariah by the West.
The IOC president-elect deserves to be honoured. Imagine driving along Kirsty Coventry Street or Avenue. Or driving past Kirsty Coventry's statue in the central business district?
We appeared to underestimate Coventry’s billing in the run-up to the IOC elections.
Kirsty Coventry deserves her place in the sun. She has been Zimbabwe’s most effective ambassador in the past 25 years.
