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Coventry donates most of $100,000 prize to charities
ROYAL WELCOME: Zimbabwe's Olympic champion Kirsty Coventry
arrives home from the Beijing Olympics
By
Collin Matiza
Last updated: 29/09/2008 15:18:43
(Watch
Coventry's gold medal swim VIDEO)
WHILE her name
is now commonly associated with her dynamic exploits in the pool, Zimbabwe's
swimming icon Kirsty Coventry recently revealed another soft spot to
her - donating to the needy.
Barely a month after she once again raised the country's profile at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, where she reaped four medals - one gold and three silvers - Coventry has decided that it is better to give than to receive.
In one of the most generous gestures shown by a local athlete, Coventry channeled part of the US$100 000 that she received from President Robert Mugabe for winning the four medals at the 2008 Beijing Games to a number of local charitable organisations.
According to the president of the Zimbabwe Aquatic Union, Kathy Lobb, Coventry, who returned to her base in the United States on Wednesday, made several cash donations to the local charities for the needy that included cancer patients and the elderly.
Apart from giving cash donations to cancer patients and the elderly, Coventry also gave money to SOAP, a support group for pensioners, and to Not For Profit Trust, a local organisation that supports local health programmes by sourcing funds for basic drugs for the medical system.
Coventry also donated some money to her former school Dominican Convent High School.
Lobb, however, said Coventry, who turns 25 next Tuesday, did not want "the figures to be specifically mentioned".
"She just wants it to be mentioned that she just made generous (cash) donations to a number of charitable organisations from the money that she received from the President," Lobb said.
But the local cancer association is reported to have received a "big chunk" of the money that was donated by Coventry to the local charities for the needy.
"The cancer association is close to her heart because Kirsty lost two grandparents who both died of cancer.
"She first lost her grandfather last year and then her grandmother died just before she competed at the Beijing Olympics.
"In fact, I think Kirsty's grandmother died while she was in Japan preparing for the Olympic Games and by giving money to the cancer association, it was all part of her efforts to make a difference in the society," Lobb said.
On her Facebook profile, Coventry lists some of her affiliations as helping out "a couple of non-profit foundations in Zimbabwe; a Cancer Association, an AIDS Orphans Organisation and the Harare Children's Home."
Coventry burst into the limelight at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, where she emerged with a full set of medals -- one gold, one silver and one bronze.
These were Zimbabwe's first Olympic Games medals in 24 years after the gold medal that was won by the women's hockey's Golden Girls at the Moscow Games in Russia way back in 1980.
She then went on to prove that her three-medal haul in Athens was no fluke when she reaped four more medals -- one gold and three silvers -- at last month's Olympic Games in Beijing.
And upon her return from Beijing, Coventry received a Royal welcome at Harare International Airport where she was welcomed by hundreds of local sport-loving fans.
She was later to
receive US$100 000 from Mugabe in recognition of her outstanding achievement
at the Beijing Games. - Herald
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