Australia’s success at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (held in 2021), expansion of community engagement programs, advocacy for member sports and Brisbane securing the rights to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games were highlights.

Equally, the AOC recorded a surplus of $0.5m, despite significant costs of charter flights and COVID measures, off the back of a strong commercial program and returns from the Australian Olympic Foundation.

The complexity of tasks associated with Tokyo 2020, planning for Beijing 2022 and running other activities in the fixed timeframes of the Games, required agile planning and the capacity to respond while managing interaction with multiple stakeholders from sports, athletes and Games organisers to governments and their agencies at the highest levels.

Importantly, the AOC ensured the Australian Team could safely prepare for and compete in the Games before returning home to complete government quarantine.

AOC President John Coates says Australia’s success in Tokyo was a testament to the detailed planning by the AOC and member sports to meet the challenges of competing in a Games during a pandemic.

“By every measure these were a very successful Games for Australia. Our 17 gold medals equalled the previous best for a Team competing abroad (Athens 2004) while the 45 medals in total equalled Beijing 2008 as the third highest of all time. Emma McKeon’s four gold and three bronze elevated her to 11 Olympic medals in her career, becoming Australia’s most successful Olympian of all time.

“Significant unbudgeted costs were incurred to make this success possible, including charter flights, vaccination and testing costs for Team members, and increased supplies of medical and personal protective equipment.

“While the focus was on the Team, we powered on with Olympics Unleashed, now active in four states and the ACT, notching up the milestone of 240,000 students benefiting from Olympians telling their stories of resilience, which was very important in 2021.”

“The risk of a potential deficit was mitigated by strong revenue results. The major upside was via the annual distributions from the Australian Olympic Foundation (AOF), which were $8m higher than the prior year due to a bounce back in the economy and equity markets which delivered strong returns.

“We were fortunate to have several new sponsors sign on and all our existing partners stay with us, further strengthening our revenue base. The AOC maintains a strong balance sheet with $6m in retained surpluses which will all be required to support ongoing operations in our current quad through to Paris 2024.

Mr Coates said Brisbane securing the rights to host the Summer Games in 2032 was a proud moment that will transform Australian sport over the next ten years and for another decade beyond.

“There will be a lasting benefit for our sports and the community. The Games will be cost neutral from an operational perspective and essential infrastructure for Queensland funded by the Queensland and Australian governments fast-tracked.

“The benefits will be quite different to Sydney. We have the runway of international events across the next decade, including the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the FIBA Women’s World Cup and potentially the 2026 Commonwealth Games and potentially Rugby World Cup 2027 (men) and Rugby World Cup 2029 (women) plus a lasting legacy of community sporting infrastructure for the decade after the Games and beyond.

“Due to changes implemented by the IOC post-2000, there will be no one-off windfall mirroring the Sydney profit-share, which provided the AOC its ongoing financial independence with the distribution of $88.48m to the Australian Olympic Foundation at that time.

“As explained in my President’s Review in the 2021 Annual Report, that’s not on the table for Brisbane 2032, which is why the financial legacy from Sydney must be preserved and protected. But we have all learned lessons from Sydney.

“I particularly commend Sport Australia for its introduction of pathway programs and other initiatives that will help our member sports prepare for and capitalise on the Brisbane Games,” Mr Coates said.

Mr Coates welcomed news that IOC President Thomas Bach will attend and address the Annual General Meeting in Sydney, enroute to the Oceania National Olympics Committees (ONOC) Annual General Meeting in Fiji the following week. President Bach will be accompanied by Kirsty Coventry, chair of the Brisbane 2032 IOC Co-ordination Commission.

Election of Office Bearers 2022

The 2022 Annual General Meeting is a milestone event for the AOC with the election of a new President with John Coates stepping down after 32 years at the helm, plus the election of two Vice Presidents along with seven Executive positions.

Helen Brownlee is stepping down as Vice President after her 30 years of stellar service to the AOC and Olympic movement in Australia and the Pacific.

Candidates for the three Office Bearer positions and the Executive have been nominated by the National Federations of sports on the programmes of next Olympic Summer and Olympic Winter Games.

Our three remaining State Olympic Councils can nominate candidates for the Office Bearer positions. The other four Councils have transitioned to advisory committees of the AOC.

Entitlement to vote – two delegates of each of the member National Federations on the programmes of the next summer and winter Olympic Games, members of the Executive, Chair and Deputy Chair of the Athletes’ Commission, Chair and Deputy Chair of the Indigenous Advisory Committee and any members of the IOC who are Australian citizens, are entitled to one vote.

The following nominations have been received for the positions of President, Vice Presidents and members of the AOC Executive.

President

• Ian Chesterman AM
• Mark Stockwell

Vice Presidents

(two to be selected)

• Matthew Allen AM
• Evelyn Halls

AOC Executive

(seven to be selected)

• Mark Arbib
• Alisa Camplin-Warner AM
• Craig Carracher
• Kitty Chiller AM
• Michelle Cooper
• Cath Fettell
• Amy Jones OLY
• Michael Murphy
• Elizabeth Scott OAM

Orders of Merit

The AOC will formally award its highest honour, the Order of Merit, to three outstanding contributors to the Olympic movement in Australia.

Dr Helen Nugent AC was unable to accept her award last year due to COVID. She has been recognised for her considerable contribution to the Australian Olympic Foundation’s Investment Advisory Committee.

Dr David Hughes is being recognised for his service to the AOC Medical Commission for the past eight years and the Australian Olympic Team Medical Director for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

Dr Hughes provided the detailed systems and processes that enabled the Australian Olympic Team to successfully overcome the considerable hurdles COVD-19 posed to Australia’s Tokyo campaign. His clear articulation of the issues provided enormous confidence to athletes, National Federations and the community.

Craig McLatchey is being recognised as a former Secretary-General of the AOC and member of the Sydney 2000 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.

More recently, Craig has made an extraordinary contribution to ensuring Brisbane secured the right to host the 2032 Games.

He led the feasibility study for the Council of Mayors, South East Queensland, then assisted the Queensland Government complete its assessment of the costs, benefits and legacies the Games would bring.

Finally, his expertise and guidance were central to the completion of the response to the IOC’s detailed Questionnaire, subsequent presentations to the IOC Future Host Commission and Executive Board which ultimately delivered the Games to Brisbane.

Update on AOC Executive Meeting March 25th

The AOC Executive met in late March, approving two significant matters.

AOC Chief Executive Officer, Matt Carroll presented a review of the AOC’s organisational capability and capacity to ensure the AOC is appropriately structured and well placed to achieve the ten Paris Quad Initiatives and to maximise the opportunities of the ten-year lead into Brisbane 2032 and the ten years after.

While strengthening key areas related to Member Sports and Teams, expanding community engagement programs including social responsibility initiatives, Olympian services, Information Technology, advocacy and procurement, a new position of Chief Marketing and Digital Officer has been created with Will Jago appointed to the Senior Management Team in that role. The role will ensure focused expertise to build the AOC’s digital assets, fan, and community engagement, both critical to the commercial program and support of member sports.

Mr Carroll says the changes anticipate the requirements of the Paris Quad Initiatives and the needs of the AOC through to Brisbane 2032.

“To deliver on the AOC’s Objectives, which go far beyond organising Olympic teams, we have set ten Initiatives for the Paris Quad and we need to match our ambitions with appropriate capability and capacity.

“We have promoted from within, with six enhanced roles for existing staff with greater strategic and operational responsibility. The AOC has an exciting period ahead and we need to be positioned to deliver on our Objectives,” Mr Carroll said.

The Executive also appointed John Coates AC as Honorary Life President, under the provisions of the AOC Constitution, for outstanding service to the Olympic Movement and sport, and particularly as elected President of the AOC for more than 30 years.

The Honorary Life President position will be effective from the date of John Coates ceasing to be an IOC Member following the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The position was created after constitutional amendments carried at the 2021 Annual General Meeting.

The role is honorary and carries no vote at the Executive or AGM.

Harry Gordon Memorial Award

Awarded for the third time in recognition of excellence in news media reporting of an Olympic Games, this year’s award has been won by Chris Reason, Channel Seven, for his coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Award will be presented at the AGM.

The Judges’ award focused on the Tokyo showdown between Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle – noting “the Titmus-Ledecky duel in the 400m freestyle race at Tokyo was probably the most anticipated event in the Games for Australia”.

The independent panel further observed – “Chris Reason’s story for Seven News that night was extraordinary in that the five minutes it ran for only 30 seconds was allocated to the race itself. Chris added more than four minutes to make it a much more personal story.”

Entries from both Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Games were considered by a three-person independent panel. The Panel also Highly Commended entries from Will Swanton (NewsCorp) and Phil Lutton (SMH/Age) and further acknowledged Tracie Holmes (ABC) and Damian Ryan (Nine Network) for their coverage.

Previous winners of the Harry Gordon Award have been Jacquelin Magnay – NewsCorp and Mike Colman – NewsCorp.

The AOC Annual Report and the Australian Olympic Foundation’s Annual Report, can be found here.

The Agenda for the Annual General Meeting 2022 can be found here.