On Thursday, March 19, 2020, the Australian Olympic Committee called a snap media conference at its plush headquarters atop the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay.
The COVID-19 pandemic had the world in its sweaty paw, people were losing their lives, businesses were going down the gurgler, but the AOC was bravely batting on, adamant the Tokyo Olympics would be held later that year.
AOC chief executive Matt Carroll sat in front of the socially distanced media pack, parroting the words from then president John Coates that the Greatest Show on Earth must and will go on.
“We’re a listening organisation!” Carroll declared when grilled about the AOC living in its own bubble.
As he said this, you only had to turn your head to the right and look out the window for a reminder of how serious the pandemic was becoming.
For there it was: an enormous cruise ship called the Ruby Princess docked at the International Passenger Terminal. More than 900 of the 2700 people on board later tested positive to the virus and 28 died.
Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Despite the casual approach of the AOC to the pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed a few days later.
The AOC has never been particularly great at reading the room, let alone the harbour.
In recent times, its media strategy around its most important announcements have been shambolic, which is surprising because you’d think its media boss, Strath Gordon, would know better.
Gordon is an experienced hand who spent 11 years as the Director of Public Affairs at the NSW Police and, before that, Rugby Australia.
‘This should have been an easy sell for the AOC.’
So how he could bungle the story about sending athletes competing at the Paris Olympics home 48 hours after they’ve finished is hard to comprehend.
Ignore the whingeing swimmers who treat the second week of an Olympics like drunken teenagers at Schoolies – this is the right call and one that’s in line with most leading nations.
The last time I checked, the Olympic Games were about high-performing athletes doing their best in the pursuit of medals, of reaching finals, of breaking personal bests. Not how many free beers they can drain at Heineken House.
Ask an athlete competing in the second week what it’s like to maintain focus as those around them complete their competitions, sneaking in slabs to the apparently alcohol-free athletes’ village and replicating scenes from The Hangover.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be held in Paris.Credit: AP
Ask an AOC official what it’s like wrangling drunken athletes who disobey simple directives. Ask them about the Rio Olympics when security in a dangerous city was the greatest priority, yet athletes still broke curfews, lost their passports, or, in the case of swimmer Josh Palmer, was held up at gunpoint after partying at a Copacabana nightclub.
Ask them about the misconception that athletes leisurely wander from venue to venue, cheering on their fellow Australian teammates because they will tell you it simply does not happen.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, former team liaison officer Laurie Lawrence could get dozens of extra athletes into venues without the right tickets. But, at recent Olympics, that access simply does not exist.
Athletes can attend the sports in which they compete using their accreditation, but that’s about it.
Under the AOC’s new edict, which was agreed to by member sports and the athletes commission, those competing have two days to celebrate before finding their own accommodation or coming home.
Is two days not enough? How long do they want the bender to last? Five days? A week? Until they use up all the 450,000 free condoms?
The AOC admitted to this column on Monday that it gave this story to News Corp, its official partner, which slammed the organisation as “woke” and accused it of “cancel culture”.
At no point did the AOC consider letting the athletes it would affect know first.
Scrambling, Gordon released a banal statement from Carroll to interested news outlets over the weekend.
In its infinite wisdom, the AOC left out the most important bit – there aren’t as many beds in the athletes’ village in Paris as previous Games. As reported as far back as 2020, the capacity has been cut from 17,000 beds to 14,000; all part of the push to make these Olympics sustainable and streamlined and cost-efficient.
With beds at a premium in Paris, the AOC needs to juggle who is coming and who is going. This was confirmed by the AOC to me on Monday.
Who deserves a bed more: a competitor going on a week-long romp or a coach whose athlete is still vying for medals? Is this a Contiki Tour or the Olympic Games?
This should have been an easy sell for the AOC.
Last month, Carroll fronted the National Press Club in Canberra and said Australian sport was looking at a $2 billion funding black hole that needed to be filled before the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.
The AOC hasn’t relied on public funding since the Sydney Olympics, but taxpayers are more likely to support a young athlete’s sporting dreams than get the next round of Bacardi Breezers.
