Australian Olympic leadership showdown fuelled by squabbles over athletes’ Rio detention

THE Australian Olympic team’s most humiliating moment in Brazil was the incident that also triggered the crisis now tearing apart the Australian Olympic Committee.

Mike Tancred leaves his Mosman apartment for the golf course on Saturday.

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IT WAS the Australian Olympic team’s most humiliating moment — the police detention of nine Australian athletes during the 2016 Rio Games for falsifying tickets — and now it can be revealed the incident also triggered the crisis tearing apart the Australian Olympic Committee.

Then-AOC chief executive Fiona de Jong fired off a furious email when she felt she was not given sufficient credit for securing the release of the athletes’ passports from a Brazilian courthouse, accusing media manager Mike Tancred and chef de mission Kitty Chiller of giving credit instead to a local “fixer”, Channel 9’s Brazilian producer Jessica Cruz.

The revelation is contained in Mr Tancred’s hard-hitting submission to the AOC board as he fights to keep his $300,000-a-year job as right-hand man to beleaguered Olympic boss John Coates.

Fiona de Jong was annoyed by the rocketing profile of chef de mission Kitty Chiller, Mr Tancred says.

Mr Tancred has a complaint of bullying against him by Ms de Jong and has stood himself down pending the outcome of an independent investigation. In his statement Mr Tancred denies all the bullying claims by Ms de Jong and others, but he admits to angry outbursts and to threatening to reveal embarrassing text messages she allegedly sent.

The nine athletes — including rugby sevens captain Ed Jenkins and cyclist Melissa Hoskins — were detained after being caught tampering with their accreditation passes to get into a basketball semi-final near the end of the August 2016 Rio Games.

They were released after interrogation but police confiscated their passports.

Olympic officials, including Ms de Jong, negotiated to pay a $37,000 fine to have the passports released, but Mr Tancred appeared to give some credit to the Nine producer in a Nine news item and a tweet showing him hoisting Jessica Cruz’s arm into the air in celebration, with Ms Chiller in the background.

Mike Tancred tweets credit after the incident. Picture: Twitter

In an email titled “Thanks” with a link to the Nine News story, Ms de Jong wrote to Mr Tancred, Ms Chiller and AOC president Coates: “Hi Mike, after working around the clock for days and nights all the credit goes to Jessica, you and Kitty. Are you kidding?”

The email features in a statement tendered to the president and AOC executive last Wednesday where Mr Tancred denies he was a bully and alleges Ms de Jong was annoyed by the rocketing profile of Ms Chiller.

Ms de Jong denies the claim that she was jealous of Ms Chiller.

Mr Tancred’s statement says Ms de Jong, on her last day at work, launched a legal attack on the then emotionally “fragile” chef de mission, threatening to sue her for defamation. Ms de Jong said the complaint was withdrawn “after an undertaking was provided by Ms Chiller”.

Sunday Telegraph

In his 10-page statement Mr Tancred writes the former AOC chief executive “resented” Ms Chiller’s prolific role before and during the Rio Olympics. “(Fiona de Jong) resented very much that Kitty Chiller was the Chef de Mission of the 2016 Olympic Team and resented even more the fact that Kitty had to take up a desk at the AOC and oversee the preparation of the Rio team,” he writes.

• He reveals his now-infamous threat to Ms de Jong that he would “bury you” was a fierce defence of Ms Chiller. Ms de Jong, on her final day of work, formally accused Ms Chiller of accusing her of being “a leak” to the media

• He dismisses Ms de Jong’s claim he has a bullying history dating back 12 years.

Mr Tancred states in the document: “I have worked at the AOC for nearly 20 years. In that time I’ve had one grievance recorded against me in 2013.” Mr Tancred apologised and the staffer continued to work at the office for another nine months.

DE JONG’S COMPLAINT AGAINST CHILLER

Following Rio, an Olympic source said Kitty Chiller “had gone into her shell for three months” and was exhausted and hurt by attacks, including Alan Jones calling her ‘Kitty Litter’. Mr Tancred organised a Chinatown lunch with Channel 7 sports heavies, which was to be Ms Chiller’s first social occasion since the Games. “During that lunch Kitty received an email from John Coates which changed the mood of the entire occasion,” Mr Tancred writes.

“She told me she had been threatened with legal action by Fiona de Jong. On reading the email Kitty’s face turned an ashen colour. She was clearly distressed and left the table and went to the women’s restroom with Julie Dunstan. It was obvious when she returned to the table that she had been crying and was visibly shaken. I asked her to show me the email. She refused.”

John Coates has held his position with the AOC for 27 years.

Later Mr Tancred called Ms de Jong, who was on her final day at the AOC, and says a polite conversation disintegrated. “I explained to Fiona that Kitty was distressed and I had major concerns for her state of mind and what was the point of making such an accusation against her on her last day at the AOC.

“I said she should ‘go quietly’. She refused and said ‘what about my state of mind?’. I said that had absolutely nothing to do with Kitty or me. We had nothing to do with her leaving the AOC; we were not responsible. “Fiona refused to budge despite my pleas to consider Kitty’s fragility. I explained that Kitty had broken down when she read the accusation that had been sent to John Cotes.

“I became angry because I knew the allegation was wrong and Kitty’s reputation and livelihood was being threatened. As a last resort I threatened to share Fiona’s phone logs from Rio which included personal text messages to a staff member from the IOC. I don’t recall saying ‘I would bury her (career)’ but I don’t deny using that term”.

FONTS AND STILNOX

Mr Tancred, who arranged Ms de Jong’s first job interview with the AOC, insisted they had a solid working relationship. The Sunday Telegraph has seen numerous cordial emails between the two but they disagreed about layout and fonts on a brand revamp. “Fiona appeared to ignore the key media issues surrounding the AOC on a daily basis,” he wrote.

Australian athletes leave the police station in Rio after the ticket falsification incident. Picture: Cameron Tandy.

 At Coates’ request he sent out documents without Ms de Jong’s approval about athletes using Stilnox. “I did as I was instructed. I know this caused Fiona distress, and I remember apologising to her afterwards, but there was certainly no intent on my part to humiliate her and I was not ‘threatening and offensive’. I simply did what my boss told me to do.”

Fiona de Jong told The Sunday Telegraph she had no problem with Ms Chiller and did not resent her as Mr Tancred claimed.

“It’s entirely untrue,” she said. “I’ve had the pleasure of serving under five other chef de missions of Australian Olympic teams and had no such resentment.”

When asked about the Rio accreditation issue and who should be credited for securing the athletes’ release, Ms de Jong replied: “Those nine athletes are better placed to provide their view on how they came to be on the charter flight home.”

Ms De Jong declined to comment further on the withdrawn complaint against Ms Chiller and Mr Tancred’s denials of bullying and other allegations. “It’s a matter for the independent panel,” she said. “Now that the independent panel has been determined it would be entirely inappropriate for me to make further comments on my complaint against Tancred.”