By Roz MorrisManaging Director, TV News London
“I was not aware..” That was how Kirsty Coventry the President of the International Olympic Committee began several of her responses to questions from journalists at her frankly disastrous IOC press conference at the end of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.
As the President of the International Olympic Committee, Kirsty Coventry, is the head of a global organisation which constantly faces numerous political challenges.
But, beginning with a question about Germany not wanting to bid for the 2036 Olympic Games because of memories of the Nazi run Olympics in 1936, she showed that she was not prepared for obvious political questions. And this happened again and again throughout the event.
She was also taken aback by questions about a Russian anti-doping chair and the Fifa president Gianni Infantino among others.
Kirsty Coventry is a high achiever. She is a former Olympic medal winning swimmer, who became IOC president ahead of Lord Sebastian Coe, and took up the post of president in June 2025. She is the first woman, the first Zimbabwean, and the first African to serve as president.
She has a very distinguished career in sport and in public life. In 2004, in Athens, she won three Olympic medals: a gold, a silver, and a bronze, and in 2008 in Beijing she won four medals: a gold and three silver. She was the Minister of Sport for Zimbabwe for 7 years.
But she was clearly not prepared for media questions. She gave a powerful example of how not to answer questions at a press conference. She completely illustrated the need for a leader to prepare thoroughly before facing questions from journalists and she also displayed a lack of the skills required for leadership.
Thinking on your feet and being able to bridge away from tricky questions are essential skills for any spokesperson and especially the head of an organisation, but Kirsty Coventry demonstrated not only that she wasn’t prepared, but that she doesn’t have these important skills either.
It’s not just lack of preparation that let her down. If she had been properly briefed, she would have been able to handle the questions effectively, but the fact that she kept turning to her head of comms who was sitting next to her and showing him up as he didn’t know anything either, was really unprofessional and very uncomfortable for the audience.
She even threatened to dismiss some of her comms team. The whole event was a real shocker. It was painful to watch.
Her behaviour made news headlines across the world and damaged her leadership and reputation. Comments online included condemnation for her lack of professionalism in publicly blaming her staff.
It became clear that without a written answer prepared beforehand she wasn’t ready or able to engage with a question.
So, what should she have done?
Firstly she should have been better prepared for the wide range of questions she was bound to face from the world’s media. Thorough preparation was clearly lacking and, if she had been better prepared, she would have had plenty of positive things to say instead of being so negative. She would have been able to bridge away from the unexpected question back to her own messages. Difficult questions can be turned into opportunities to demonstrate leadership.
Secondly she should have been able to handle questions diplomatically and put across the Olympic ideals convincingly. This was something she belatedly did at the end of the press conference but by then it was too late to rescue her reputation.
In every interview or press conference there may be an unexpected question about an unexpected topic. In my media training sessions, I always advise spokespeople that they will never be able to prepare for e every question they get asked.
However, they can prepare to deal with every type of question and have an agenda that they are keen to assert. That’s where they show their skills as leaders. I can’t script leadership. But I can give people the skills to handle difficult questions with diplomacy and professionalism that demonstrate their leadership.
This embarrassing press conference was such a shame for the Winter Olympics.
Yes there were a few other embarrassing media moments – the skier who confessed to cheating on this girlfriend, the row over the banning of the Ukrainian for wearing his helmet with political messages, and also the poor coverage of the opening ceremony by RAI, Italian TV, where the commentator was not properly prepared and made several factual errors. However, overall, there was brilliant media coverage with dramatic drone shots we had never seen before, and audiences caught up with the speed and bravery of winter sports competitors.
Kirsty Coventry let herself down. She let her team down and she let down all the people who worked so hard to provide a brilliant event. And all because she didn’t prepare properly to face the world’s media.
