And one of the things I’ve personally come to love about Dakar is just how active and outdoors-oriented the city is. You constantly see people out on the beach, training, playing sports, or simply spending time with their kids in the streets. It’s really lovely to see, and it reminds me of my own youth, too.

You got into swimming and uncovered your competitive streak fairly early on. Did the mud and bike rides give way to ambition, medals and records pretty quickly?

Kirsty Coventry: Well, yes… But it’s funny, I sort of see my career in two parts: one in the lead-up to me winning my medals in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and then the end of my career in London 2012 and Rio 2016. There were completely different focuses at these two stages.

I got injured in 2012 and I knew I wasn’t going to win medals, so I had to enjoy the Games in a different way. Same for Rio: Iwas just enjoying being an athlete and going out on my own terms. As I became older, I also learned to take in the little moments, the moments you take for granted when you are just focused on the end result. You miss a lot of the other experiences when you are just focused on competing: the camaraderie between athletes, the friendships you create, the adventure of travelling around the world and getting to experience the local culture of these different places… You don’t really allow yourself to enjoy all of that when you are so focused on medals and records.

And in my job today, these two different experiences allow me to give better recognition to an athlete’s entire experience. Looking ahead to Dakar 2026, I hope athletes get to experience the Olympic Movement beyond their competitions. Being driven by medals is not a bad thing — every athlete will go through it at one stage; but I think that being more closely connected to that latter stage of my career as an athlete is very helpful in my job today. The athlete experience is central to my mandate, and I know first-hand that that experience is far broader than the podium moments.

You’ve described learning to enjoy sport differently as you got older. Do you think young athletes today face pressures that you didn’t?

Kirsty Coventry: I think social media brings a whole new level of pressure to athletes today, because they have no disconnect. They finish their competition, jump straight on their phone and message their parents to let them know how it went, then jump to social media… and there’s a lot more criticism and expectations that come from that world too. As an elite athlete you do have power and you have a voice, and nowadays with social media, you have a platform too. But that also means you might get pushed and pulled into doing something you don’t believe in.

And that’s on top of the other “normal” pressures of that age. I was talking to a friend of mine whose daughter will be swimming in Dakar – in fact I taught her how to swim – and she will be going through school exams during the period, and so that’s taking a toll. I just hope she also takes time to enjoy the actual event and do all the fun things – concerts, exhibitions, slam poetry, fashion shows, circus arts, and much more planned in the city during it.

I think there’s so much pressure from all sides when you are young, to be honest. In the IOC, what we try to do is to put rules and regulations in place to protect athletes, so that they can make their decisions for themselves. Creating this platform for the athletes called the Olympic Games also means we have a huge responsibility to protect them from external pressures.

As President of the IOC, have you been able to lead in a way that feels authentically your own?

Yes. I’m very comfortable with the kind of leader I am. I think what you realise is that some people will like it, some people will not like it, and that’s their choice. At some point they will either join in or jump off the bus. For the most part I try to be respectful to those people who may have different ways of doing things… but only to a point. At some point it’s also like, okay, that’s how we are going to move forward and I’d like you to come along with me. But if you can’t, then that’s not my decision.

And especially for leaders who step into roles, as I have, at a younger age than their predecessors, there can naturally be a degree of scepticism: people may wonder, “She’s quite young; can she really handle this?” I actually welcome that challenge. I’m not interested in talking about leadership, I want to demonstrate through my actions that I can be a strong, decisive leader. My approach may be different from what has come before, but that doesn’t mean the previous way was right or wrong. It’s about recognising what the organisation needs now and having the confidence to lead in a way that meets that moment.