Marlene Chiedza Gadzirayi has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee ©LinkedIn

Marlene Chiedza Gadzirayi has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC), filling a role that has been vacant since February.

She is due to officially start her new position on September 1 and will replace Stephen Mudawarima, who left six months ago after two years at the ZOC.

ZOC’s head of finance and administration Memory Pakati had been acting as interim chief executive since Mudawarima’s departure.

"The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee is pleased to announce the appointment of Marlene Chiedza Gadzirayi as its new chief executive/secretary general," its President Thabani Gonye said in a statement.

Gadzirayi has a background in business and sports administration, including working for the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe.

Marlene Chiedza Gadzirayi, the newly-appointed chief executive of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 but is now in remission ©Facebook
Marlene Chiedza Gadzirayi, the newly-appointed chief executive of the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee, was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 but is now in remission ©Facebook

In 2020, Gadzirayi was diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer at the age of only 33 and had to endure six months of painful radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

She shared her treatment at the time on social media, a move praised by charities in Zimbabwe for helping destigmatise the illness.

Gadzirayi is now in remission. 

"Marlene’s expertise encompasses over a decade of experience in business, sports, strategic and administrative systems leadership," said Gonye.

"She has dedicated her career to improving the effectiveness of internal control systems within finance, accounting and administration, drawing from her experiences in football, media, the private sector, and non-profit organisations, ensuring they have coherent strategy and execution plans to achieve desired impact.

"Her past roles have included being an accountant, business development, finance officer and finance and administration manager.

"In addition to her professional and academic qualifications, Marlene is passionate about sports, wellness, travel and is an avid reader.

"Lastly, I would like, on behalf of the ZOC Board, to heartily thank and appreciate Ms Pakati for recovering ground in the ZOC operations programmes and stabilising the ship with a small, dedicated team during her call of duty."

Zimbabwe's team at Tokyo 2020 was the smallest it had sent to the Olympics for 92 years ©Getty Images
Zimbabwe's team at Tokyo 2020 was the smallest it had sent to the Olympics for 92 years  ©Getty Images

The ZOC was hit badly by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team it sent to Tokyo for the re-arranged 2020 Olympic Games was the smallest since Amsterdam 1928.

Zimbabwe sent a team of five athletes to the Japanese capital, one each in athletics, golf and rowing and two in swimming.

They failed to win a medal for the third consecutive Olympics with the best performance coming from Scott Vincent, who finished equal 16th in the men’s golf.