Taking Sides In Australia

(ATR) Supporters of John Coates say he’s the right person to lead the Australia Olympic Committee.

Coates is seeking a seventh term as president of the AOC in the May 6 election. For the first time since his first election in 1990, Coates has serious opposition.

Danielle Roche, a 1996 gold medalist in water polo, is the only other candidate so far. Nominations will close next week.

Roche, 46, says after two dozen years under the presidency of Coates, the AOC is due for a change. She is also critical of the $700,000 in compensation Coates draws each year from the AOC.

In a column published in the national daily The Australian, retired IOC member Kevan Gosper says the push for a new president appears to overlook the contribution made by Coates to the AOC.

"The matter of limiting terms of office as a governance issue typically exists to protect an organisation against inadequate performance or misbehaviour at a high level. In the case of John Coates, there appears to be no substantive criticism of his professional or ethical commitment and achievement in office," writes Gosper, saying it seems "like change for change’s sake".

Gosper says criticism of the remuneration for Coates is "spurious". Gosper says the payments have been publicly declared every year in the AOC financial report "and never previously deemed to be inappropriate, particularly given his international Olympic workload for which he is not remunerated."

Gosper says Coates has brought prestige and strength to the AOC, contributions a successor would be pressed to match.

"So before considering change, we had better believe we have a replacement of comparable talent and promise rather than being left with serious regrets and a president without tested credentials," says Gosper.

In addition to his IOC membership, Coates leads the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. An attorney, Coates is chair of the IOC Legal Affairs Commission. Outside the IOC he is president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The challenge to Coates has been building since the end of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics where Australia ranked 10th in the medals table, a 29-medal finish deemed disappointing by some in Australia. Among those critics, John Wylie, chair of the Australia Sports Commission, who is said to have led the search for a candidate to challenge Coates. Roche is a member of the ASC board.

And this week the drama for control of the AOC took another twist with The Australian reporting that Fiona de Jong, who resigned last October as AOC chief executive, is now involved in some sort of legal dispute involving her past employer as well as AOC media chief Mike Tancred. Details of the complaint have not been disclosed.

De Jong spent 10 years as AOC director of sport before taking the CEO post in 2015.

Tancred, who joined the AOC two decades ago, tells Around the Rings his alliances are clear.

"I am supporting John Coates," says Tancred.

Written by Ed Hula.

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