John Coates begins blooding candidates to succeed him at AOC

AOC president John Coates has begun giving potential successors international experience.

John Coates surrounded by key Australian Olympic Committee executives, CEO Matt Carroll (left) and vice-presidents Helen Brownlee (right) and Ian Chesterman (far right) at the AOC annual general meeting in May.

John Coates has begun the process of blooding potential successors to his position as Australian Olympic Committee president, by taking Sailing Australia president Matt Allen with him to the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission meeting in Tokyo this week.

Coates is making good on his re-election promise to introduce a new generation of sports leaders to the ways of international sports politics before he stands down as AOC president in 2020.

He is beginning with the newly-elected AOC executive board members, who include Allen, but has also invited outside candidates such as the former deputy chairman of the Australian Sports Commission and Mean Machine swimmer Mark Stockwell to participate in the program.

“I have offered everyone on the board the opportunity to be involved,’’ Coates confirmed from Tokyo.

Neither of his vice-presidents Ian Chesterman and Helen Brownlee have ambitions to succeed him so the AOC will have to look to a younger generation. Athletics Australia president and former politician Mark Arbib has also ruled himself out as a future AOC president, but the other board members include Allen, Craig Carracher (volleyball), Kitty Chiller (modern pentathlon), Evelyn Halls (fencing), Steve Hooker (athletes commission), Nicole Livingstone (swimming) and Michael Murphy (diving).

Coates has sought and received permission from the IOC and the Tokyo organising committee to bring two Australian officials with him to all the coming international meetings.

Chesterman will lead the AOC’s delegation to the next Association of National Olympic Committees meeting, with chief executive Matt Carroll and Halls.

Stockwell confirmed the AOC had “reached out and put some opportunities there for me to engage at an international level with sport.’’ Coates said the Asian Olympic Council meeting and future co-ordination commission and Tokyo project planning meetings would also be on the schedule.

“The co-ordination commission meetings are particularly useful because that will give them access to the IOC members and administration, it’s pretty good for that, and Tokyo 2020 were happy to agree to us doing that,’’ Coates said.

He said Allen had been deputised to meet with the Australian ambassador to Japan to discuss using some embassy facilities for Olympic team hospitality during the Tokyo Games.

Allen is very familiar with Japan after spending five years in Tokyo as the regional director of UBS and his experience will be an advantage as the AOC plans its Japanese Olympic campaign.

Coates has also said previously that Stockwell was a prime candidate to run any Brisbane bid for the Olympic Games.

The Brisbane property developer confirmed that he had had discussions with both Coates and Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk about a bid but said any plans were up in the air while the IOC considers a plan to award the next two Games to the remaining 2024 candidates Paris and Los Angeles.

“I am keeping an open mind about it, but if they award both 2024 and 2028 this year, then we are talking about a bid for 2032 and my interest was based around it being for 2028. I may not be the best person going forward from there.’’

Stockwell led the successful bid for the Gold Coast to host next year’s Commonwealth Games and believes a successful Olympic bid would be a great boost for south east Queensland.

“It would benefit massively from the facilities and infrastructure that an Olympic Games requires, because it puts in place a deadline when those things have to be delivered. It brings a beautiful focus to it.’’

Stockwell, who has been critical of both Coates and Australian Sports Commission chairman John Wylie for allowing their relationship to deteriorate so badly in the lead-up to this year’s AOC election, said he was confident that Australian sport’s two peak bodies would sought out their differences.

“I can see that both of them have been making an effort to resolve their differences,’’ he said.