AOC boss John Coates reflects on 32 years of battles with PMs, Premiers and media icons
The main man behind the Sydney Olympics and a key architect of Brisbane’s successful bid, John Coates reflects on three decades at the top and his at times controversial reign at the AOC.
For a bloke who swears he doesn’t go looking for fights, John Coates has sure spent an awful lot of time brawling.
An old-school knockabout from Sydney’s inner west, Coates learnt from a young age that if you intend to stand your corner, you’ll need to swing hard and keep throwing punches.
So he took that advice to heart and has benefited spectacularly, ascending to the position as president of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC), arguably the most powerful job in Australian sports administration.
His fearless (some would say pugilistic) approach to the role transformed him into one of the lead players in some of the most poignant moments in Australia’s proud sports history.
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It was Coates who chose Cathy Freeman to light the cauldron at the Sydney Olympics.
And it was Coates, more than anyone else, who played the decisive role in convincing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to award the greatest show in sport to Australia, not once but twice, in the first third of the 21st century.
But for all the plaudits he’s earned, he’s also got plenty of knockers, because he’s been in the thick of some of the most heated, public rows that Australian sports has witnessed.
Relying on his wit instead of his fists, Coates has gone toe-to-toe with everyone from prime ministers and premiers, to business leaders, media personalities and rival officials.
He’s been bruised by some of the blows he’s copped along the way but never taken a backward step and as he prepares to hang up his gloves after a 32-year-reign, he’s more certain than ever that he fought the good fight.
“I‘ve never run away,” he told News Corp.
“I wouldn’t say I loved them but where it’s necessary, you have to stand up.
“I believe I’ve done that (although) I think sometimes people might have thought I’ve gone a little bit too far with some of the language I’ve used.”
FIERCE RIVALS
That’s a thinly-veiled reference to his acrimonious spats with John Wylie, the former head of the Australian Sports Commission.
Coates had stacks of tense disagreements during his three decades in charge — notably with broadcaster Alan Jones but also with Danni Roche for the AOC presidency in 2017 and, more recently, with sections of the left-leaning media who accused him of ‘mansplaining’ to the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk when he told her she should attend the Opening Ceremony at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
But none of those verbal sparring sessions ever came close to his ferocious battles with Wylie
The pair’s mutual dislike of each other boiled over at an athletics meeting in Melbourne in 2017 after Coates refused to shake Wylie’s hand, triggering an expletive-laden slanging match.
Both men have moved on but as Coates explains it: “The Wylie thing wasn’t just spur of the moment.”
A stickler for independence, nothing infuriated Coates more than when he thought politicians or government agencies were meddling in the AOC’s affairs.
A decade before he was elected president, Coates had been instrumental in defying then prime minister Malcolm Fraser’s push for the Australian team to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
He got his way and the team went to the Russian capital but the fallout led Coates to the conclusion the AOC needed to keep an arm’s length from the government and its various sporting bodies.
This eventually led to the creation of the Australian Olympic Foundation, which raises and manages the funds that allow the AOC to remain financially independent.
Coates considers it among his greatest legacies so blew a fuse when he believed Wylie was interfering with it in the 2017 AOC presidential election — a claim the former investment banker has away refuted.
“I’ve got no animus towards John,” Wylie said.
“There was obviously a significant public disagreement around the time of the 2017 AOC election but that election actually did lead to some important cultural changes at the AOC.
“Even though it was pretty stressful for everybody, that 2017 election did lead to some good things for Australian Olympic sport and I salute John for an enormous contribution to Australian sport over decades.”
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
Captivated by sport since he was a child, Coates has come a long way since he wagged school to witness Richie Benaud play his last Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1964.
A rower and law graduate from the University of Sydney, he may have ruffled a few feathers along the way but there’s little argument he is Australia‘s most accomplished and influential international sports administrator.
He’s become friends with Royal Families, heads of state, captains of industry and some of the greatest athletes the world has ever seen, just at ease mixing with the rich and famous as his old blue-collar mates in the suburbs.
“I still love the punt,” he said. “And I like rugby union and rugby league. I love watching all sport, really.
“I’m hoping I can do more of that now, and maybe see the mighty West Tigers win a grand final.”
Although he’s been a polarising figure at times, Coates is highly respected in global sporting circles and no-one disputes the part he played in bringing the Olympics back to Australian shores and his unwavering contribution to the movement.
He was one of the masters behind Sydney’s stunning victory over Beijing in the vote for the 2000 Summer Olympics and Paralympics and was the guiding light behind Brisbane’s successful bid for 2032 — even helping the IOC draft a new framework to select host cities without breaking the bank.
“I guess the Everest was Sydney, the role I played in setting the strategy for bidding and then delivering the Games and the sports side,” Coates said.
“With Sydney, we won it and delivered it, but we’re yet to do that with Brisbane.
“It was still a big achievement to play a role with the IOC in changing the way the Games are bid for, reducing the cost and complexity of bidding.
“Under the old system Brisbane wouldn‘t have bid, they wouldn’t have gone into the competition where they were having to fly IOC members out here and having to go and visit them around the world, having to spend $50 million and maybe not win. It wouldn’t have happened.
“Other cities around the world now are lining up having seen the lesson of Brisbane.
“Some were a bit excited about the fact that we jumped the gun on them because by the time they really got serious, we had three detailed feasibility reports concluded.”
LEGACY
Many of Coates’ accomplishments have been formally recognised – he was made an Order of Australia companion in 2006 – but some of his most important achievements are still often overlooked.
He was one of the first senior Olympic officials to recognise the need for greater diversity, so pushed hard for the inclusion of more women and indigenous athletes in Australia’s teams.
Not only did he select Freeman to light the flame in Sydney but each of the final flag-bearers for the Opening Ceremony were women.
At last year’s Tokyo Olympics, there were more women on the Australian team than men and a record number of indigenous athletes, including basketball superstar Patty Mills, who was chosen to carry the national flag.
It’s been a long pet project for Coates and continues.
“When I first became president, the men outweighed the women significantly but that’s totally turned around,” he said.
“But there’s more work to be done, especially in encouraging more female coaches.
“We’ve had managers of teams but I think that career paths for women coaches in the Olympic sports still needs improvement.
“And on the Indigenous side of things, we amended our constitution in 1995 to recognise Australia’s First Nations people.
“We made it one of our objectives that we would play a role in reconciliation through sport, and that‘s proceeding very well.
“We had a record 16 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in the last teams but I think that‘s just scratching the surface.
“You see the (number and quality of) Indigenous athletes in the football codes and our sports need to be tapping into them equally as well.”
Coates’ long tenure as AOC President ends this Saturday, with a new leader to be elected.
Ian Chesterman and Mark Stockwell are the two candidates contending for the role but he’ll be a hard act to follow.
After 32 years at the helm, Coates says he’s ready to step down and focus more on his health after missing this year’s Beijing Winter Olympics on the advice of doctors.
But he won’t be lost to Australian sport.
The 71-year-old has already been named as honorary life president of the AOC, a non voting role that he will assume after the 2024 Paris Olympics, and is a board member of the organising committee for Brisbane 2032.
Coates also remains vice-president of the IOC until Paris, when he has to stand down because of his age, but will certainly be awarded life membership.
The IOC President himself Thomas Bach has travelled to Sydney to speak at Coates’ farewell dinner on Saturday, which will be attended by a who’s who of Australian sport, business and politics, including the governor-general, John Howard, Palaszczuk, Susie O’Neill and Jess Fox.
Enormously respected within the global Olympic movement, Coates was long rumoured to be a possible contender for the IOC presidency but never ran for the post, instead throwing his support behind Bach and working as his right hand man.
Asked whether he regretted not going for the top job, for once, Coates took it on the chin.
“Absolutely not. I am happy to be one of president Bach’s greatest supporters.
“He is far, far better qualified than me. He’s an Olympic gold medallist.
“He’s also a lawyer, but he’s got language skills. I have certain language skills I use with John Wylie. But his are far more refined and they’re in other languages.
“I want to make sure we deliver Brisbane properly but that’s not going to be a full-time job for me.”
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