IOC President Heads to Australia

(ATR) IOC President Thomas Bach arrives in Sydney as he begins a 10-day visit to the South Pacific.

While he has visited Australia before as IOC president, on this trip he will become the first to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Australian Olympic Committee.

"Historic" is how AOC president John Coates describes Bach’s attendance at the May 4 meeting in Sydney. "We’ve not had an IOC president attend an AGM before," Coates tells Around the Rings.

"I’m expecting he’ll talk about the recent athlete’s forum. I think he’ll talk about changes from Olympic Agenda 2020 to bidding and changes in the future to make it easier and sustainable," he says.

Coates speaks about the Bach visit with ATR Editor Ed Hula in the latest edition of ATRadio. The podcast will be published May 3.

For his part, Coates says his remarks to the AGM will take aim at the federally-administered Australian Sports Commission. Coates has repeatedly quarreled with the ASC through the years, accusing the commission of seeking to control the AOC.

"I’m making a strong position statement with a very big emphasison independence and autonomy and the threats to independence and autonomy through history," he says.

Coates has repeatedly accused the ASC of "trying to get its hands" on the $165 million in the AOC treasury.

The broadside against the ASC will be delivered two weeks from the latest federal election.

"I would expect [Bach] to respond on the importance of autonomy, one of his favorite subjects," Coates said.

Coates, a prominent IOC member with key portfolios, works closely with Bach across a range of issues.

Chair of the IOC Coordination Commission for Tokyo 2020, Coates says preparations for the Olympics and Paralympics appear to be in good shape. But he says transport planners still need to find a way to reduce traffic in Tokyo by 15 percent to accommodate the Olympic crush.

Transportation is an issue for a potential bid from Brisbane for the 2032 Olympics. Coates says infrastructure is needed now to cope with daily transport snarls in southern Queensland.

Bach will travel north from Sydney to Gold Coast in Queensland where the annual SportAccord Convention takes place May 5-10. From Australia, Bach will head to Papua New Guinea, Palau and Guam for visits with the NOCs of those island nations.

Reported by Ed Hula.