From Africa to Auburn to Athens

Kirsty Coventry almost didn't trust the scoreboard when she finished the 200-meter backstroke final at this year's NCAA Swimming Championships.

Not only was the Auburn junior more than surprised to find her name in first place, but Coventry also had to rub her eyes after realizing she had beaten California's Natalie Coughlin --- arguably the best female swimmer in the country.

"I was kind of shocked," said Coventry, who had registered five first-place finishes in previous NCAA races.

"I was in a state of disbelief. I looked up at the board and said, 'I'm in first? Wow.' Natalie is a great swimmer. Everyone in the world is like, 'I wanna be her' and 'I wanna beat her.' It was an awesome experience."

The victory was quite a feat for Coventry, especially because Coughlin --- a three-time NCAA Swimmer of the Year --- had never lost a race in college.

Now Coventry will be looking to better the achievement when she heads to Athens, Greece, this summer as a member of the Zimbabwe Olympic swim team.

"It's not very real right now," Coventry said. "But it's getting there. I'm more excited [every day]."

Swimming might seem a bit unusual for a country situated in the middle of Africa. In fact, the entire Zimbabwe team is only made up of three individuals --- Coventry, Brendan Ashby of Alabama, and coach Kim Brackin of Auburn.

But according to Coventry --- who grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe --- the sport's popularity in the nation has only begun to wane of late.

"Swimming was a pretty big sport there earlier [in my life]," said Coventry, who had swam with Ashby on the same club team in Zimbabwe. "It kind of got smaller and smaller as the years went on. My parents were swimmers and all my friends used to swim, so it was not hard to get into. But as I got older, fewer people were doing it."

It was Brackin who initially discovered Coventry when the young swimmer was competing in high school for the Harare Covent.

But before signing with Brackin at Auburn, Coventry became the first Zimbabwe swimmer to reach the semifinals at the Olympics, which she did in 2000 at the Sydney Games.

"It was more just to go and swim against world class people, to see who the big names were," said Coventry, who was named Zimbabwe's 2000 Sportswoman of the Year. "I was still pretty young."

Once she arrived at Auburn, though, Coventry made a quick impact, winning the SEC title in the 100 back as a freshman, finishing the race in a school record time of 53.82.

She repeated the feat as a sophomore in 2003, but came up short in both the 100 and 200 back events at the NCAAs, placing second behind Coughlin in the first.

This year, however, proved to something of a springboard for Coventry, as she closed out a spectacular season as the SEC Women's Swimmer of the Year, setting a meet record in the 200 backstroke and finishing second in both the 200 and 400 individual medleys.

"It was huge," she said. "My freshman year, I had never heard of the NCAAs before. But once I got there, I was like, 'Wow, this is a pretty big event.' It was magical."