Australian Olympic Committee row as Coates protege in bitter dispute

The battle for control of Australia’s Olympic movement is being fought against the backdrop of a bitter dispute.

Fiona de Jong at the Rio Olympics last year.

The battle for control of Australia’s Olympic movement is being fought against the backdrop of a bitter dispute between the Australian Olympic Committee and a former, long-serving executive who tried to modernise its practices.

The Australian can reveal that former AOC chief executive Fiona de Jong, described by AOC president John Coates as one of Australia’s great sports administrators, is locked in a protracted dispute with her employer of 12 years after making a complaint against its media ­director, Mike Tancred.

The details of the dispute are being closely guarded by Mr Coates, who is facing an unprecedented challenge for his position from Hockeyroos gold medallist Danielle Roche.

It is understood Mr Coates has ­engaged external lawyers and briefed his vice-presidents, Ian Chesterman and Helen Brownlee.

The rest of the AOC board has been kept largely in the dark about the potentially damaging dispute. Ms de Jong and Mr Tancred declined to comment.

The impasse between the AOC and Ms de Jong, a one-time protege of Mr Coates, has emerged amid an increasingly personal election campaign, with Coates supporter Graham Richardson describing Ms Roche’s qualifications for the job as ­“paltry’’. Mr Richardson, a former federal minister and columnist for The Australian, was appointed by Mr Coates as mayor of the Sydney Olympic village.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, who turned down ­approaches from multiple sports to run for the AOC presidency before hockey nominated Ms Roche, said he was not surprised the campaign had become dirty ahead of a ballot on May 6.

“There is going to be a lot of people having IOUs called in … a lot of people whose names and reputations are going to be trashed,’’ he said. “That’s why I think the election is so important.

“The real point is whether 30 years is too long for anyone to be running anything. As we have seen with FIFA (and) with the IOC, long periods of leadership have invariably led to reputational damage to the ­organisation.’’

Ms de Jong quit the AOC in October. It is understood she was dismayed at the management of Australia’s Olympic team in Rio where, despite being the AOC’s most senior executive, she was forced to take a back seat to chef de mission Kitty Chiller.

Her involvement in Rio included handling the fallout from the accreditation fiasco, when she was called in to negotiate the ­release of nine Australian athletes from the custody of Brazilian police after they tried to attend a basketball game with dodgy passes. She arranged for AOC staff involved in the fiasco to be flown out of Rio early to avoid further arrests.

Ms de Jong’s decision to quit her $450,000-a-year job after less than 18 months in the role surprised Olympic watchers, who had seen her as a potential successor to Mr Coates. During her short stint, she wrote a 10-year strategic plan and modernised the AOC’s commercial brand and logo. However, she lost control of the organisation’s communi­cations after Mr Tancred insisted on reporting to Mr Coates.

A lawyer and triathlete, Ms de Jong joined the AOC in 2004 and served for a decade as director of sport.