How John Coates cracked the whip to rally AOC votes

At each round of AOC voting, John Coates used his electronic whip to orchestrate a bloc of votes to stunning effect.

Danni Roche and John Coates after the ballot.

Nicole Livingstone realised what she was up against at 9.55am on Saturday. Voting had just opened in the AOC elections and a dele­gate leaned over and showed her the text message that had flashed up on his mobile phone instructing him how to vote.

The text was authorised by AOC president John Coates and dispatched by a paid service to all delegates. At each round of voting, first for the president, then for two vice-presidents and, finally, seven positions on the board, Coates used his electronic whip to orchestrate a powerful bloc of votes to stunning effect.

Some of the delegates were angered at the tactics. Some within the camp of challenger Dani­elle Roche cried dirty pool, given the AOC refused on privacy grounds their request at the start of the campaign for the contact details of the 93 delegates whose votes would decide control of the Olympic movement.

Yet the episode merely confirmed what everyone knew: that Coates is a skilled political operator prepared to use any resource available to retain his grip on the AOC. When quizzed on it later, he offered no apology. “It was an election and so be it,’’ he said.

A more important message from this unprecedented election is also clear. Over the past six weeks, since Roche, an Olympic champion hockey player and Australian Sports Commission board member, announced her challenge to Coates, the ground beneath Australian sport has shifted dramatically.

As one experienced political observer noted, you can win an election but lose the public. For Australian sport, the necessary way forward has been shown by elements of Roche’s reform agenda, one-third of Olympic sports casting a vote against Coates and, most significantly, the preparedness of athletes through the AOC Athletes’ Commission to raise their voices and exert political influence in a way that has never happened before.

Figures on both sides of the split describe the role played by the athletes as a game-changer. Their votes went to Coates in ­exchange for a raft of concessions about better governance and ­improved relations with the sports commission. Andrew Plympton, a former member of the AOC who lost his seat in the ballot, said neither­ Coates nor his new board could afford to ignore athletes’ demands: “It will be an absolute insult to athletes representing this country at Olympic Games if he doesn’t deliver.’’

Livingstone, an Olympic swimmer, was the only member of the AOC executive voted back onto the board against the weight of Coates’s numbers.

“When you have got a third of sports indicating they want change and the Athletes Commission having a list of the things they want changed, you have to take that on board,’’ she said.

Olympic rower Nick Green, a member of the AOC executive for 11 years and Australia’s chef de mission in London, stood down from the board on Saturday without contesting his seat.

He remains heavily involved in Olympic sport as chief executive of Cycling Australia. He described the trend of Australia’s declining performance in international sports as “disturbing’’ and said the case for more strategic and modern­ thinking had been made.

“There has been enough commentary publicly and privately over the past six weeks to send a clear message,’’ Green told The Australian.

“While we have significant influ­ence internationally, there has been a groundswell of support for a real focus on domestic sporting matters and a partnership with the Australian Sports Commission that benefits the athletes.’’

The relationship between Coates and the ASC chaired by John Wylie has been broken since the Rio Olympics, when Coates publicly criticised the ASC’s sports funding model while the Games were still in progress. Green said the friction between the two sports bodies was silly and untenable.

While Coates enlisted the considerable campaigning skills of AOC board member Mark Arbib, Wylie played a significant role behind­ the scenes for Roche.

Reconciliation between the two Johns will not be easily reached but, already, small steps have been taken. Federal Sports Minister Greg Hunt said he had spoken to Coates and Wylie since the AOC vote and had arranged to meet their respective chief ­executives, Matt Carroll and Kate Palmer, in Canberra this week.

Hunt promised something else — more money for sport in tomorrow’s budget. Although he would not divulge the details, he told The Australian the federal budget would be a good one for sport, which has been hit with successive funding cuts since the London Olympics. “It will be a positive sports budget with additional support for the Commonwealth Games through the ASC, as well as other logistic support for the Commonwealth Games and broader sports initiatives,’’ he said.

Hunt said the ASC and AOC had “no choice’’ other than to bridge their divide.

The ASC issued a statement yesterday congratulating Coates on his election. Wylie said it was in the national interest for the ­government’s peak sporting ­agency to have a strong working relationship with the AOC.

“We note the president’s ­comments this weekend that he will seek to improve the AOC’s and his personal relationship with the ASC,’’ Wylie said. “This is a welcome and very positive development. The ASC board also ­welcomes the commitment of the AOC and its stakeholders to cultura­l change.’’

A few days before the election, Coates called Swimming Australia president John Bertrand. It was the first time the pair had spoken since Rio, when Coates publicly took aim at Bertrand and the ­performance of the Australian swimming team as part of a ­broader attack on the ASC’s “Winning Edge’’ funding model.

The call demonstrated two things: that Coates was confident he had sufficient support to be ­re-elected and that he understood that, if he did win, things could not continue as they were.

“John and I agreed that we will meet up in the very near future, one on one, and work through the issues,’’ Bertrand said.

Bertrand said although Roche lost her ballot against Coates, the strength of her campaign had forced important changes at the top. “Without Danni Roche’s challenge, most of what has resulted would almost certainly not have happened,’’ he said.

“Moving from an executive to a non-executive president role is very good. Empowering the CEO of the AOC is excellent. The independent investigation into bullying and, in addition to that, the internal culture, is a positive step.

“Danni has done a great service for sport in this country. She polled a third of the votes and that is a real shot across the bow signalling that change is due.’’

The new make-up of the AOC board demonstrates the desire of the sports to have a more direct and powerful say in their Olympic movement. Of the seven board members, six are current presid­ents of national sports federations and Livingstone is a board ­member of Swimming Australia.

Everyone at the AOC — the president, the newly elected board members and the Athletes’ Commission chairman Steve Hooker, who also sits on the AOC executive — are publicly committed to dismantling Coates’s fiefdom and establishing proper governance along modern corporate lines.

Carroll is only one week into his job but, already, Coates has given up the parts of the AOC business that previously reported directly to him: media, sponsorship, brand management and licensing. He has pledged to bring in external consultants to review the workplace culture of the AOC.

He has promised to drop his title of executive president, to not involve himself with management and let Carroll do his job. Coates reiterated he will not seek another term and to leave the final decision on his successor to the sports.

Within this altered landscape, there appears little prospect of AOC media director Mike ­Tancred, a long-serving employee stood aside amid a bullying complaint against him by former chief executive Fiona de Jong, returning to the AOC. He is a remnant of the old AOC. His fidelity to Coates and fierce protection of him is no longer required.

Roche, having started a conversation that Olympic sport is deter­mined to carry on, will return to the board of the ASC. By standing against Coates, she achieved much of what she set out to do.