Lord of the rings our Games bid’s secret weapon

When it comes to southeast Queensland’s bid for the 2032 Olympic Games, there can be only one ringmaster.

WHEN it comes to Queensland’s 2032 Olympics bid, there is only one ringmaster.

John Coates, the wily Australian Olympic Committee president, is the man with the inside knowledge and intellectual firepower to keep the bid front and centre from an International Olympic Committee perspective.

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Coates is also vice-president of the IOC and a close confidante of IOC president Thomas Bach.

He also chaired the special sub-committee set up by the IOC to streamline the candidature bidding process, making a tilt for the Olympics much more fiscally responsible for a host city.

And while Coates’ experience and understanding of the intricacies of the IOC selection process is surely an advantage, he is also cognisant that he must play a hands-off role when rival bids get serious in 2020.

Coates sees Queensland as a personal legacy piece.

He has accomplished much in international sport and this would be the crowning glory.

It was Coates and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk who led the cheerleading for the Queensland bid in Switzerland in early September.

It was Coates and the Premier who hosted IOC president Mr Bach at the Sports Accord on the Gold Coast in May.

AOC president John Coates

While Coates is the glue that keeps that bid together, Ms Palaszczuk is the public and political face of the 2032 bid.

Her unbridled enthusiasm for a 2032 Queensland Olympics is evident, and is matched by other key players, such as Council of SEQ Mayors representative Mark Jamieson, Liberal federal MP Ted O’Brien and Labor federal MP Milton Dick.

This political bipartisanship was not lost on the IOC.

Tourism Minister Kate Jones would be Olympics Minister under a Palaszczuk Government going forward. She was Commonwealth Games Minister in 2018.

State Opposition Olympics spokesman John-Paul Langbroek is waiting in the wings should the LNP win next year’s October 31 election.

Langbroek would be Olympics Minister if we win the bid under a Frecklington government.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says he’s willing and ready to proceed with the Brisbane bid and it would be a lost opportunity if the Government closed the door.

Another key player is Star Entertainment Group chairman John O’Neill, who represented the business community in Lausanne.

Then there’s key corporate supporters such as the Brisbane Committee, which comprises the city’s major movers and shakers.