The president of the International Olympic Committee knew her audience.

Before she took the microphone Wednesday, Kirsty Coventry’s credentials were read to the crowd gathered at Washington Elementary: Not only is she the first woman to oversee the entire Olympic Movement, but she is also the first African. She also competed in five Summer Games as a swimmer.

While it’s an impressive list of accomplishments, it’s not one she expected to register with the several hundred wiggly 4- to 12-year-olds seated on the floors and benches of the school’s auditorium. So, she gave them a factoid they’d be more likely to remember.

“Do you guys know someone called Michael Phelps?” asked Coventry, who competed for Auburn University, where Phelps often trained. “So I used to swim with Michael. I’m very glad I didn’t have to swim against Michael, but I used to swim with him.”

Coventry was making her first visit to Utah since being voted in as IOC president last year. During the one-day visit, she checked in on preparations for the Utah 2034 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, toured venues and met with athletes, organizers and state and local leaders. In addition to the opening ceremony for the Champion Schools 34 reading initiative — one of several such kickoffs held around the state over the past month — Coventry attended a practice session of the 19U and 16U Utah Lady Grizzlies hockey team.

The Grizzlies are Utah’s only all-girls hockey program and one of just four top-tier 19U teams in the West. At the practice, held at the Salt Lake Sports Complex, Coventry announced that Utah 2034 organizers were donating $5,000 in celebration of Utah Youth Sports Giving Day. In its first year, the multi-day initiative that runs through Saturday has raised nearly $2.4 million for nonprofit youth sports organizations in the state.

“I think it’s so important that we have these connections in our communities,” Coventry said in an interview taped Wednesday and provided by the IOC, “and young people can go and try sports — not even to become an elite athlete, just to find a community, to find a connection, to be able to find themselves sometimes.”

Rob Johnson, the director of hockey for the Utah Lady Grizzlies, said the money could pay for additional coaching, strength training and possibly scholarships for the team. About half of the 19U players come from out of state and live with host families during the season, Johnson said.

“They’re a very excited group,” Johnson said. “Very passionate. Hardworking. So this is just kind of elevating them even more.”

Teaghin Boorhees, a 17-year-old from Wyoming, has played with the Grizzlies for three years. She admits to looking Coventry up on YouTube after coaches told the team of the impending visit. When she got a chance to talk to Coventry, though, it wasn’t about her position of power, but about her athletic prowess. She is especially impressed by Coventry, Boorhees said, because the teen can’t swim.

“It’s really cool to meet someone who got that far in her sport,” Boorhees said.

Neither Coventry’s role as the IOC president nor her status as an Olympian registered with 9-year-old Raeann Dickson, who attended the assembly at Washington Elementary. But that’s not to say Coventry’s visit didn’t have an impact on the fourth grader. She said she was leaving the gym feeling more excited about the Olympics coming to Utah.

Was she inspired enough to compete, or maybe volunteer?

“I don’t know,” she said, “I want to go see it, though.”

Amy Garff, the president of the Champion Schools 34 education program, said it’s OK that the kids don’t necessarily know who Coventry is.

“To have Kirsty show up and show that education is important is a win,” she said. “Yeah, that’s a gift.”