Olympic champions rally behind John Coates

A Who’s Who of Olympic champions have rallied to support beleaguered AOC president John Coates.

Several sports stars say Australian Olympic Committee chief John Coates should not be shown the door

A who’s who of Olympic champions and other leading figures in Australian Olympic sport have rallied to support beleaguered Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates as he fights to retain his position in the last days before the AOC election on Saturday.

Olympians spanning 60 years, from 1956 (Olympic medallist Marlene Matthews) to 2016 (Rio Olympic rower Kerry Hore), and including Olympic greats Herb Elliott and Cathy Freeman, have endorsed Coates as he faces a challenger, 1996 Olympic hockey gold medallist Danni Roche, for the presidency for the first time in 26 years.

Olympic gold medal-winning coach Ric Charlesworth, who coached Roche to her gold, said he was disgusted by the increasingly ugly campaign against Coates.

Charlesworth said he did not accept the argument put by Coates’ opponents that after 26 years in the job, his time was up.

“Brian Schmidt (the Nobel prize-winning scientist) has been doing physics for 30 years, should he be sent packing? Rupert Murdoch is an octogenarian and so is Frank Lowy, should they go? It’s about competence, not longevity,” Charlesworth said. “My experience is that John Coates always got it, whatever the issue was. He was on top of the brief, he knew the detail and he worked hard for a resolution, whatever sport it was.

“Danni hasn’t done anything like that. She doesn’t have a longstanding interest or involvement in the Olympic movement, she’s on the board of a football club and the Australian Sports Commission through patronage and that doesn’t make a career in sports administration.’’

Charlesworth described Roche as “divisive’’ and said she had no leadership experience.

He said it was “absurd’’ to blame Coates for the decline of Australia’s medal tally at the past two Olympic Games and for Roche to suggest that money spent on his salary and administration could make a substantial difference if it was channelled to the sports.

“The bulk of the funding for sport comes from the Australian Sports Commission and a lot of this is about the ASC trying to get their hands on the AOC’s money (it has $146 million in reserves) which is currently independent of government.

“The AOC money is a top-up at best and it isn’t the answer to the funding crisis in sport.’’

Elliott, the 1960 Olympic gold medallist, said Coates was an “exceptional’’ leader of the AOC and should not be forced out due to his longevity.

“John Bertrand (Swimming Australia’s president who is backing Roche and making the argument that Coates should go) has been president of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame for 12 years and Rob de Castella has been on that board for 20 years.

“I think they should stay because they are exceptional and so should John Coates.” Elliott said. “We are probably the most impressive National Olympic Committee in the world and that’s because we have a great leader. I rang 10 athletes yesterday and asked them to stand up for Coates and they all said ‘yes’.’’

Former Australian Sports Commission chairman Greg Hartung, who has also served as president of the Australian Paralympic Committee, also came out in support of Coates, saying that the Paralympic movement had benefited enormously from Coates’ leadership of the AOC.

“It is not widely known, but the APC has benefited to the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, IT and medical support and services provided without cost by the AOC in the lead-up to and during the transition period from the Olympic Games to the Paralympics Games,’’ Hartung wrote.

“With the support of John Coates it has now become common practice for the Australian Paralympic Team to occupy the same space in the athletes village as their Olympic counterparts.

“There is no doubt this has contributed enormously to Australia’s Paralympic Team morale and led to our successes in competition. The relationship between the Paralympic and Olympic Committees has deepened and strengthened over the period of John Coates’ presidency.’’

Hore, the first Australian female rower to attend four Olympic Games, said she was “distressed’’ by the personal attacks on Coates during the election campaign.

“John has always been very supportive of me as an athlete,’’ she said.

Hore, who is a pharmacist, revealed that she had been in danger of losing her pharmacy registration last year because her Olympic training had reduced the number of hours she had been able to work, but Coates had gone in to bat for her.

“He wrote to the federal health minister on my behalf, and he called me on Christmas Day to see how I was going because I was feeling pretty low and couldn’t support myself (as a pharmacist),’’ she said.

“He uses his knowledge and his connections to help athletes.’’