Olympics Games 2020: AOC boss John Coates says Tokyo has potential to be even better than Sydney
The man who helped organise what was described as ‘the greatest Games ever’ says there may soon be a fresh rival for Sydney such is his faith in the success of rescheduled Tokyo Olympics.
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Senior international Olympics official John Coates said the delayed Tokyo Olympics could end up being the greatest Games ever, after the world would have emerged from the COVID-19 crisis.
Coates, Australia’s Olympics chief and head of the International Olympic Committee’s inspectorate, cited the examples of the Games that followed the two world wars of the 20th century.
The Tokyo Games were postponed for a year to 2021 in the aftermath of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
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Coates said he thought Tokyo could surpass even the reputation of the 2000 Sydney Games, which he helped organise and were described by then IOC chief Juan Antonio Samaranch as “the best Olympic Games ever”.
“Because we all must wait longer than the already-long wait for an Olympics, the Games of Tokyo will gently but perceptibly echo the sheer joy and relief of the other delayed Olympics of Antwerp in 1920 and London in 1948,” he told the annual general meeting of the Australian Olympic Committee.
“I believe the Tokyo Olympics may ultimately be amongst the greatest Games ever, if not the greatest. And putting the parochialism of a proud Sydney boy aside ... I certainly hope Tokyo will be.”
Turning to future “opportunity”, Coates told the meeting, which was held online, that the proposal for Australia to host the summer Olympics for the third time in 2032 was gathering pace.
The bid, centred on South East Queensland around Brisbane, had been given the official backing of the AOC in January, he said, and was now in the phase of “continuous dialogue” with the IOC’s Future Host Commission. Planning for venues, mostly already existing or temporary, and planning for athletes villages were progressing and the necessary buy-in of local, state and national government was largely in place.
Coates, who ran a failed bid to host the Games in Brisbane in 1992, said an Olympics could provide an economic catalyst to help Queensland and Australia out of the expected post-coronavirus recession.
“I have always believed in making necessity a virtue. There is already a need for jobs and growth in the Queensland economy arising from the impact of COVID-19,” he told his online audience.
“Our (government partners) recognise a potential 2032 ... Games as a critical part of the state and nation’s economic recovery in the short term, quite apart from all of the long-term health, well-being, economic and sporting legacies.”
Originally published as Olympics Games 2020: AOC boss John Coates says Tokyo has potential to be even better than Sydney