‘The Games weren’t going to happen’: Coates on terror threats, gender wars and IOC politics

After 21 years as an IOC member, and 14 of them on the executive committee, John Coates will leave his post on Monday (AEST). One of the most powerful and polarising figures in Australian sport talks to this masthead.

John Coates’ IOC tenure is finishing.Credit: Eddie Jim

How are your emotions right now as the end nears?

I’m ready to finish, but I did get emotional at the IOC session last week. [IOC president] Thomas Bach on the last day of the session gave a valediction of sorts. Then I said a few things and went through what we’d achieved on the executive board. I said, “I better stop before I get emotional”. And I was. I’ve had a good run.

Proudest moment?

In terms of Australia, it was giving the athletes a voice. Back in 1989, we were one of the first to put two reps on the IOC executive. The other thing was to make the Australian Olympic Federation of the states into a committee. Frankly, the people on the federation weren’t the best administrators and not consistent with the Olympic charter, which says the voting constituency should be the national federations of the sports on the next Olympic program. The states were too detached from reality. We had some arrogant people there. They had this thing called the “justification committee”. Sports would have to justify themselves about why they had athletes on the Olympic program. Deals were being done with each other to get the numbers.

You’re renowned for being a hard-nosed administrator, prepared to get your hands dirty to arrive at the outcome you want. That’s made you a polarising figure, even in your own country. Any regrets?

No, but you’re right: you do lose some friends and you do cop criticism.

You’ve had a coup or two plotted against you in your time.

When [former NSW minister] Michael Knight was running the Sydney Games, it wasn’t a meeting but a conspiracy if we were sighted together. I’ve always had the ability to think one step ahead. The AOC got $90 million out of those Games and set up a foundation. That $90 million is now $180 million after distributions of about $150 million. It gives the AOC 4 per cent based on net assets at the start of every four years. That’s $30 million every four years. So, the AOC doesn’t have to rely on government funding. That’s what polarised: we stopped asking the federal government for money because you’re never independent if you’re not financially independent.

What does Olympic funding look like between now and Brisbane 2032?

The federal government should continue to put in. There won’t be enough benefactors like Gina Rinehart, who tie themselves to sports they’re interested in. We have an obligation to have everyone from 35 summer and winter sports there. The UK went ahead after one gold in Atlanta and introduced a lottery system.

Sydney 2000 bid boss Rod McGeoch has called for a national lottery.

Rod knows it doesn’t work! Under the Australian Constitution, lotteries are the prerogative of state governments. You’d have to get the states to agree, but why would they? When we won the Sydney Games, I saw [then prime minister] Paul Keating seeking $30 million a year for our sports. It was the last day of the expenditure review, and he said he couldn’t manage that, but I came out with $135 million for the period leading into Sydney. The federal government has a responsibility to grassroots sport and pathways. You need young athletes coming through.

You were fundamental to the Tokyo Games happening during a COVID-19 lockdown. On Thursday night, Noah Lyles ran the 200m final despite testing positive. How do you reflect?

I’m very proud of what we did in Tokyo. It would’ve been so easy to just cancel it and one era of athletes wouldn’t have got to the Games.

John Coates in Paris.Credit: Eddie Jim

Close to not happening?

Bach and I never once contemplated that. The hard decision was putting in place the protocols for COVID. We had to make sure it wasn’t just the wealthy countries getting vaccinated. There were countries from South America who hadn’t been approved for vaccinations, so we brought them to the US, vaccinated them, then sent them back home. We sent African athletes to Dubai. It had to be available to everyone. Then came the real tough decision to have no Japanese fans because they had low vaccination rates. They were the best prepared Olympic Games – and nobody got to watch them [at the event] in their home country.

Has Paris been a success?

It has. This Olympics wasn’t going to happen. People had a preoccupation with Russia being in Ukraine. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin declared he would disrupt these Games. Then we had what’s happening in Gaza. People have been saying it’s not safe, the athletes are at risk, and it won’t go ahead. At my level, we’d have executive board meetings with the organising committee where [French President Emmanuel] Macron’s chief security adviser and the police commissioner would talk to us. They showed us the amazing arrangements that had been put in place.

Did the thwarted terrorist attack on the Taylor Swift concert in Austria this week alarm the IOC about what might have happened in Paris?

Yes. There were a lot of serious attempts to disrupt the torch relay. [French authorities] will tell us at some stage how many people they’ve had to “neutralise” here. I don’t get those details. Cyber [attacks] is the other thing. We have thousands of those every day. What do you do? Pack it up and say there’s no international sport? Do you believe in the Olympic values that the purpose of sport is bringing people together?

The athletes have complained about a lack of quality food, beds and air-conditioning in the Olympic village. Has the IOC put environmental sustainability ahead of high performance?

The lack of protein was the issue.

In fairness, it was more than that. Adam Peaty, the Great Britain swimmer, said there were worms in the fish.

I didn’t see that. These matters are reported at the morning meetings. Food is often a problem. Those things were fixed. Transport is always a problem initially, when you bring in drivers from out of town who don’t know their way around. It was the same in Sydney.

Shouldn’t the athletes’ comfort be paramount?

The one I was never relaxed about was the [absence of] air-conditioning.

I know you can’t talk directly about certain athletes, but gender eligibility rules around Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu-ting have been a major and messy talking point.

The issue should be addressed after the Games, but it will be addressed along with the bigger question of who is going to run boxing. That’s why we’re in this position. We inherited those rules, and the IOC has given guidelines to all the sports, because you can’t have one set of gender eligibility rules being applied to different sports.

But you do. The IOC guidelines for boxing suggest being female on your passport is enough. Is it enough in the name of fair sport?

That’s not the guideline for every sport.

What is it then?

Look at what happened in athletics, which found something that was equitable and didn’t give someone with high testosterone an advantage. You can reduce [testosterone by taking suppressant drugs], which I don’t like. I don’t like the idea of people taking drugs to compete. That’s abhorrent to me. It’s either that or they don’t compete in that event. In athletics, there’s a benefit from [naturally occurring testosterone] from 200m out to 1500m. That came largely out of judgments by Annabelle Bennett, the Australian judge on CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport). That works but it’s been challenged in the Swiss federal tribunal where it succeeded. It’s now with the European Court of Human Rights, challenging the decision where [South African runner] Caster Semenya got up 4-3 on it being discrimination. Now the Swiss government has appealed to the upper chamber. It’s a very complex issue. I don’t profess to be an expert on all of it. If the IBA (International Boxing Association) had been a genuine federation and not corrupt in many areas – like judging and governance – it would have been addressed.

Is World Boxing any better?

I don’t know.

Ha! That’s not an answer.

They need to source some good people who have a background in boxing who can be independent and make tough decisions.

Now you’re almost done, please tell me: did you ever want the top job as IOC president?

No.

Never thought about it? Never approached?

No. When Thomas was about to be elected, there were four other candidates. Someone mischievously suggested I would be one of them. I told him straight away that I would be his greatest supporter, and I was. I helped get the numbers. I don’t have the language skills, and I don’t live in Europe. And he’s a gold medallist. So I wasn’t interested.

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