Swimming icon Kirsty Coventry and rowing star Micheen Thornycroft eye Olympic glory. The Zimbabwean Olympians will compete in their disciplines today and tomorrow at the Rio Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Coventry, who missed out on a 100 metres Backstroke medal last Sunday after failing to make the final will today get a chance to reclaim her dominance. She will compete in the 200m Backstroke in anticipation of a gold medal.
“I’ll be swimming my favourite event tomorrow — the 200m Backstroke. Heats start at 1300hrs. The top 16 teams from the Heats will go through to Semis which will start at 2200hrs. The top 8 from Semis will go through to Finals on August 12 at 2200hrs. Thank you all so much for your support, not just for me but for our entire team”, Coventry wrote in an Instagram post yesterday.
Micheen Thornycroft will compete in the A/B semi finals of the women singles sculls on Friday. A top 3 finish will secure her place in the A final where 6 boats will compete for medals. She qualified for the semis after finishing second in her quarter-final heat behind Danish rower Fie Udby Erichsen on Tuesday,
Rowing Association of Zimbabwe technical director, Rachel Davis who worked with Thornycroft as her coach for the 2012 Olympics said they had anticipated such a performance from the 29 year old.
“Her making it into the A/B final was great. It was expected, she has trained very hard in the build up to the Olympics. We expected her to be there”, Davis said.
With Team Zimbabwe yet to win a medal at the Rio Olympics, Coventry and Thornycroft are able to restore national pride and prestige.
Coventry has the highest number of individual Olympic medals of all female swimmers in history and highest number of Olympic medals in African history in all sports. She is Zimbabwe’s top Olympian, having won seven of the country’s eight Olympic medals to date.
Her journey began at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She won her first Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals at the 2004 Games in Athens. The iconic swimming sensation won a gold medal and a trio of silver medals at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Due to injury and illness she under performed at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
Thornycroft made her Olympic debut at the 2012 London Olympic Games where she attained fourteenth place overall after finishing second in the Final C race. She spent the last two years in South Africa training for the Olympics and qualified for this year’s Rio Games last year.
Thornycroft hopes to win a maiden Olympic medal whilst Coventry intends to add to her medal collection.
