When John Coates, the president of the Australian Olympic Committee, launched a savage attack blaming a disappointing medal haul on the nation's sports administrators even before the Rio Games had ended, most outside observers were stunned.
But those who have watched Coates' steady accumulation and ruthless deployment of power over his career were not. This wasn't Coates losing his bottle and speaking off the cuff, they believed. This was Coates rolling a grenade, the first move in a power struggle to come.
![AOC president John Coates is ready for a fight.](/web/20160828232521im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/1/m/i/c/0/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gr25se.png/1472239815329.jpg)
"You've got to get up early to beat John Coates," said one observer. (Most people who spoke with Fairfax Media for this story declined to be named, with one citing Coates' reputation as an enthusiastic litigant.)
Coates spoke out in the last days of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in two interviews, one with Fairfax columnist Roy Masters. The two have known each other since they served together for a time on the Australian Sports Commission.
"The corporate model of having leaders of Olympic sports who are connected to the top end of town, such as Swimming Australia's John Bertrand and Cycling Australia's Malcolm Speed, has failed," said Coates. "It is OK to have these business-oriented men on the board of Olympic sports, but not as president."
More broadly he condemned the so-called Winning Edge strategy set up by the Australian Sports Commission to select key sports and target them with special funding.
And he said he had withdrawn his participation from a review of the Australian Institute of Sport that had been set up by the Australian Sports Commission chairman, John Wylie.
The attack not only raised eyebrows, it raised hackles.
There was muttering that Coates, who earned over $700,000 in his position as AOC head this year, was out of line in criticising business people who had volunteered their time to manage Olympic sports.
Coates did not respond to Fairfax Media's calls for comment. Masters rejects criticism of Coates' pay, saying he brings in far more for the AOC via his canny commercial deals with the International Olympic Committee, and that he has volunteered his time to rowing in Australia for most of his adult life.
Malcolm Speed told Fairfax Media he was bewildered at what Coates' intent might have been. Leigh Clifford, the Qantas chairman recently appointed as head of Equestrian Australia, told The Australian newspaper that he believed Coates had some sort of "hidden agenda" in speaking out so soon and so frankly.
"Is it to gain control of all expenditure or is it to replace people?"
The corporate model of having leaders of Olympic sports who are connected to the top end of town, such as Swimming Australia's John Bertrand and Cycling Australia's Malcolm Speed, has failed.
John Coates, AOC president
After declining to speak with Fairfax Media, sports minister Sussan Ley said in answer to written questions that although "there were some disappointments" with Australia's performance in Rio, this was the nature of the Olympic Games.
Asked if she was disappointed at the infighting she said she, "would like to see all parties working together to benefit our athletes".
Ley said Winning Edge was a 10-year strategy and was not expected to reach its maximum potential until 2020, and noted that although Australian athletes had won just 29 medals in Rio, 70 individuals or teams finished between fourth and eight in their events.
To understand the power dynamics at play here it helps to look back over Coates' long career.
More than any other figure Coates was responsible for securing the 2000 Olympics for Australia, an ambition some say he first floated as student at the University of Sydney.
As a young sports administrator in 1978 Coates served on a committee advising the NSW government on a possible bid for the 1988 Olympics. In 1985 he was hired as the chief executive of the failed Brisbane bid for the 1992 Games.
From those experiences he came to mistrust what he considered government interference in the endeavour. When the time came to head the Sydney bid Coates, Fairfax Media reported in 2000, was determined that in winning the Games he would not just secure the world's most prestigious sporting event, but he would transform the AOC from a small part-time sporting outfit into a multi-million dollar powerhouse.
To that end as he pursued the bid he drafted a contract with the NSW state government that secured control over the organisation of the Games and revenue they generated for the AOC while lumping the government with the bill.
When the incoming Labor government discovered the arrangement in 1995 and cut a deal to win back some control, Coates extracted a $100 million payment for AOC in return.
The nest egg changed everything. Ever since the AOC has been been able to fund the dispatch of Australian teams to the summer and winter Olympics without begging for government funds. Coates has carefully nurtured the fund and the AOC has over $100 million stashed away.
According to some the resultant power and independence of Coates' fiefdom has fuelled an abrasive style and heightened tension between the AOC and the Australian Sports Commission, which is responsible for delivering government funds to the various sports.
While Coates sees the Olympic Games as the fundamental organisational motive for the sports, many other administrators see their role as far broader, and are dedicated to also increasing participation and preparing for national and international championships.
"He is not well liked," one administrator said.
![](http://web.archive.org./web/20160828232521im_/http://www.smh.com.au/cqstatic/gr2b6a/medal-count-SMH-News-Aug-27.jpg)
Those tensions could be hidden or ignored in the lead-up to Rio, but with the Games ending with far fewer medals than predicted by the AOC, an eruption was inevitable.
Coates, it seems, chose to say his piece well before others spoke out.
The battle lines are now drawn, with Coates facing off against not only the sporting chieftains he named in his Rio attack – Bertrand and Speed – but the ASC's Wylie.
One theory holds that Coates is seeking to head off what he fears to be a Melbourne-based coup in the making. The AOC is made up of the heads of the 35 national sport federations. If Wylie could stack the numbers with allies like Speed and Bertrand, the theory goes, he might be able to unseat Coates from the role he has held since 1990.
Wylie declined to speak with Fairfax Media, but categorically denied the suggestion via a spokesman.
Either way, there is no more talk of #OneTeam.