Australian oficials preare for next years Olympic Games
The Paris Olympic games are less than a year away and with athletes across sport becoming more socially outspoken, many are looking as to how the international Olympic committee will respond if their own Olympians take a stand on social issues. Australian Olympic committee president Ian Chesterman sat down with our reporter Myles Houlbrook-Walk in Katherine to discuss the AOC’s position, and their preparations for Paris.
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00:00 How's the excitement for Paris?
00:03 I think everybody's really looking forward to going to Paris.
00:07 Crowds there, mums and dads there, family, friends all there to support them.
00:11 So Paris is one of the great cities in the world and we know they're going to do a really
00:15 fantastic job putting on the games.
00:18 In terms of expectation around medals, we've got a pretty good swimming team.
00:23 How do you manage that as President?
00:25 The AOC made a decision after Rio in 2016 to move away from medal predictions, to move
00:30 away from making that the focus of our operation.
00:33 The focus now is to give every athlete their best opportunity to be their best on their
00:41 Olympic day.
00:42 And we know that if we achieve that, if the sports achieve that, if we empower the sports
00:47 to run really good programs, that our athletes, a number of them, will win medals.
00:51 The Olympics has a spirit of unity at its core, but it's grappling with some divisive
00:56 issues.
00:57 Indeed, the war in Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine is one of them.
01:01 Are you satisfied with the International Olympic Committee's stance at the moment?
01:06 It's a really complex world, trying to bring 206 nations together for one competition.
01:11 206 nations in peaceful competition.
01:14 That's the role of the Olympic Games.
01:16 We can't solve world wars.
01:18 We can't solve wars, unfortunately.
01:20 So our job is to make sure that we can bring the athletes of the world to compete side
01:24 by side in peaceful competition, and give a great example as to what the world could
01:28 look like if that was done every day right around the world.
01:32 It's not just Russia and Ukraine, though, obviously.
01:35 There's an ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza right now.
01:39 Have you spoken to athletes, and will you speak to athletes, about potential action
01:43 they may take in the lead up to the Olympics?
01:45 This concept of sport, where 206 nations come together and compete in peaceful competition,
01:50 falls apart pretty quickly if people can decide who they compete against and who they don't
01:55 compete against.
01:56 So we need to allow sport to run properly, sport to run the rules.
02:01 But I can certainly understand that there will be people with deep feelings about what's
02:05 happening in Israel and Gaza, and have views, and they'll be free to express those views.
02:14 Do you want to be president at the time of the 2032 Brisbane Games?
02:18 I think there's a long way away.
02:20 There's an old line in sports, and they will take one day at a time.
02:24 In the Olympic world, we work one Games at a time.
02:26 Ian Chesterman, thank you so much for your time, and enjoy the Paris Games.
02:29 Pleasure, thank you.
02:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]