TOKYO, July 22 (Reuters) – Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) manager John Coates has defended his uncomfortable exchange with Queensland Leading Annastacia Palaszczuk following drawing criticism on Thursday for publicly purchasing her to attend the Tokyo Games opening ceremony.
Coates, a single of the Worldwide Olympic Committee’s (IOC) most effective executives, elevated eyebrows when he informed the leading at a media meeting that she necessary to go to Friday’s ceremony together with other customers of Australia’s delegation.
The exchange arrived following Brisbane was named host of the 2032 Olympics.
“You are going to the opening ceremony,” Coates reported to Palaszczuk, who travelled to Tokyo as a consultant of Brisbane’s bid.
“I am nevertheless the deputy chair of the candidature leadership team.
“And so significantly as I understand, there will be an opening and a closing ceremony in 2032, and all of you have bought to get together there and understand the conventional elements of that, what is involved in an opening ceremony.
“So none of you are remaining and hiding in your rooms, all ideal.”
Palaszczuk replied: “I do not want to offend any one, so…”
Coates’s responses triggered outrage on social media, and he was accused of misogyny and “mansplaining” by some Australian media pundits.
“He gave a masterclass in how to be an arrogant powerbroker,” tutorial Jenna Cost wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Former Swimming Australia boss Leigh Russell claimed the trade was “disgusting”.
“And but an additional instance of how females are handled in activity,” she wrote on Twitter.
Coates claimed his comments experienced been “misinterpreted” by folks who have been not in the room.
“The premier and I have a prolonged-standing and pretty prosperous romantic relationship,” he reported in a statement on Thursday.
“We both equally know the spirit of my remarks and I have no sign that she was offended in any way. People in question really should ask her.”
Palaszczuk reported there ended up no challenges in between her and Coates after the trade.
“Yeah definitely. He’s amazing,” she advised the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“If we did not have John Coates this will not have happened,” she claimed of the profitable Brisbane bid.
“John Coates has been the driving pressure behind us securing the Olympics.”
Palaszczuk’s journey to Japan was criticised by home media who questioned the have to have for her to be existing in Tokyo whilst all over 13 million Australians remain locked down thanks to COVID-19 outbreaks.
She experienced said she would not attend any occasions though in Tokyo apart from the bid team’s presentation to the IOC on Wednesday, and would confine herself to her hotel.
Interviewed on an Australian breakfast Tv exhibit on the Nine Community on Thursday, Palaszczuk stated in relation to the opening ceremony, she would “do whichever John Coates tells me to do.”
“I am not heading to offend the Global Olympic Committee now that we have been awarded the Games,” she added.
Coates has led the AOC for about 30 many years and played a essential purpose in Brisbane’s winning bid. examine additional
In 2017, the AOC was hit by allegations of bullying and intimidation made by previous team, like former main executive Fiona de Jong.
An independent review cleared the AOC of a bullying society but criticised the perform of some senior leaders in the organisation. Coates was not amid the leaders criticised.
Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne Editing by Stephen Coates
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