Born in Harare, Coventry attended and swam competitively for Auburn University in Alabama, in the United States.

[1] Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe called her "a golden girl,"[3] and personally awarded her US$100,000 in cash for her 2008 Olympic performance.

In 2000, while still in high school, Coventry became the first Zimbabwean swimmer to reach the semifinals at the Olympics and was named Zimbabwe's Sports Woman of the Year.

As a student at Auburn University, Coventry helped lead the Tigers to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championships in 2003 and 2004.

She was also the recipient of the 2004–05 Honda Sports Award for Swimming and Diving, recognizing her as the outstanding college female swimmer of the year.

[5][6] At the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, Coventry improved on her 2004 Olympic medal count by winning gold in both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke and silver in the 200 m and the 400 m IM.

She continued her good form of 2007 by winning four gold medals at the International Swim Meet in Narashino, Japan.

She bettered the mark set by Krisztina Egerszegi in August 1991, the second oldest swimming world record.

Her time of 2:03:69 was a mere four tenths of a second outside the current world record set by Reiko Nakamura in Tokyo in 2008.

At the 2012 Olympics in London, Coventry finished third in her semifinal heat of the 200 m individual medley, just edging her into the final, where she placed 6th with a time of 2:11.13.

[12] On 7 September 2019, eight days shy of her 35th birthday, Coventry was appointed Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation in Zimbabwe's 20-member Cabinet under President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

[13] Her tenure has received criticism from the arts community and others due to perceived inaction and lack of support.

[15] In September 2023, Kirsty Coventry was re-appointed as Zimbabwe’s Minister for Sports, Art and Recreation by the country’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

At the time of her retirement, she had tied with Krisztina Egerszegi for having won the most individual Olympic medals in women's swimming.