Sydney, Europe Brief News – VP of the International Olympic Committee and departing president of the Australian National Olympic Committee John Coates declared “to a considerable degree” that the summer 2000 Sydney Olympic Games was given to Sydney because it “purchased the Games.” Keep reading to know more about the Backstory
Why 2000 Sydney Olympics Got Held?
According to excerpts from a newly found hour-long interview conducted in 2008, Coates said that he proposed money to two African National Olympic Committees that were represented on the International Olympic Committee’s panel of judges in return for their votes in 1993.
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Allegations against John Coates
Coates, who is also the president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, was cleared of any wrongdoing in this matter in 1999 by an independent report by the auditor Tom Sheridan, following allegations that he had offered bribes in exchange for votes. Coates is also the president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Sheridan said that payments were not sent directly to IOC members and that the IOC’s standards forbidding cities were impractical, among other things.
At a meal the night before the IOC vote in Monte Carlo, he acknowledged offering an additional $35,000 to both NOCs represented by IOC members Charles Mukora and Francis Nyangweso. “I wasn’t going to die wondering why we didn’t win,” Coates stated in 1999, adding that the agreement was “not sinister”.
“No payments were made, letters were handed over with obligations to two African NOCs,” he stated in 2004 following a BBC Panorama probe.
Further Investigation
Coates was vice-president of the Sydney bid committee. Coates is known to have provided contingent funds and athletic support to the Kenyan and Ugandan NOCs as part of the AOC’s aid program for African NOCs. No IOC candidature rules were broken at the time. The IOC then banned them after a corruption controversy involving Salt Lake City’s bid to host the 2002 Winter Olympics.
In an hour-long interview with Victoria University sports professor Bob Stewart for the National Library of Australia in 2008, Coates recounted his 1993 arrangement with Mukora and Nyangweso.
Mukora resigned from the IOC in 1999 after the Sheridan report suggested he be removed. The Salt Lake bid team allegedly paid Mukora to his personal bank account.
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Coates Side of the Story
Coates explained his offer to Mukora and Nyangweso as the Australian Olympic Committee president. “I assume the Ugandan and Kenyan members were worried since I sat at their table at a major dinner the night before,” he said. “So I simply walked over and said, ‘Look, if you vote for us and we go up, then there’s $50,000 US [a different sum than the reported $35,000] for each of your two National Olympic Committees, ten each year for the next five years or whatever.
Takeaway!
Lawyers for Coates claim that the statements were taken out of context despite his well-established and illustrious career in both the 2000 Sydney Olympics and broader sporting movements and worlds. “We are advised that the IOC officially acknowledged that Mr. Coates had not infringed its regulations at the time,” the statement said.
Following Ian Chesterman’s election as AOC president on Saturday by AOC delegates, the chef de mission for Australia’s Olympic squad in Tokyo takes over from Coates.
