This Month
The five charts that show it really was our best Games ever
Australia won 53 medals across 20 different sports. Outgoing IOC vice president John Coates says we can win even more.
- Zoe Samios
June
- Exclusive
- AFR Magazine
Meet the man who runs the Olympics
IOC executive director Christophe Dubi loves the Games. He’s about to find out if he’s guaranteed their future.
- Zoe Samios
April
Can the NRL’s worst team finally turn itself around?
To say the Wests Tigers have underperformed over the past two decades would be an understatement. Shane Richardson has a plan to change the team’s fortunes.
- Updated
- Zoe Samios
Taxpayer review into 2032 Games venues ‘blindsided’
An independent review into 2032 Games venues was supposed to deliver the ‘right’ infrastructure. But Queensland bureaucrats were working on rival plans.
- Liam Walsh and Michael Bleby
March
Lang Park to host Brisbane 2032 ceremonies after review rejected
Lang Park will be the site of opening and closing ceremonies while the old venue for the 1982 Commonwealth Games will be upgraded to host athletics.
- Zoe Samios and Michael Bleby
November 2023
Nicola Forrest was onside with Hamish McLennan in St Tropez
The separated wife of Andrew Forrest threw her lot in with the embattled Rugby Australia chairman, fighting an insurrection from state rugby associations.
- Updated
- Mark Di Stefano
October 2022
Andrew Liveris blocks access to his Brisbane Olympics expenses
This is Banana Republic stuff and completely unacceptable in the governance of a major, government-funded body.
- Joe Aston
May 2022
John Coates holds court at last AOC farewell
Governor-General David Hurley led the speeches, comparing Coates to no less than the woman he’s constitutionally bound to represent.
- Updated
- Myriam Robin
April 2022
Ian Chesterman takes over from John Coates as AOC president
The overwhelming support for Mr Chesterman was a vote for continuity, but the election marks a changing of the guard in Australia’s peak Olympic body.
- Michael Bleby
Brisbane 2032 Olympics needs a CEO from business or government: Coates
Outgoing Olympics supremo stresses importance of the Brisbane boss having a global perspective in putting on the world’s biggest sporting show.
- Michael Bleby
John Coates has few regrets on his way out the AOC door
Even as he steps down from 32 years in the top job, the knowledge and contacts of Australia’s Olympic supremo will be tapped for years to come.
- Michael Bleby
Olympic contenders put up their hands to replace John Coates
The decision will come down to how much the AOC voters think the Olympic body has made sufficient change and how much more they think it needs.
- Michael Bleby
February 2022
Beijing’s four medals give winter athletes a shot at more funding
While the country has scored its highest-ever Olympic medal tally, the questions about how to allocate money to sports haven’t gone away.
- Michael Bleby
December 2021
Chesterman, Stockwell vie for AOC presidency
The battle to become the next John Coates will be fought out between long-mooted frontrunner Ian Chesterman and Olympic swimmer Mark Stockwell.
- Myriam Robin
- Analysis
- Winter Olympics
Beijing Olympics seals divorce of sport and politics
Those who say sport should keep out of politics had a win with this week’s diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Games. But the tide may turn again.
- Michael Bleby and Michael Smith
July 2021
- Opinion
- Olympics
Go for Olympic host city gold - and go for broke too
The Olympic business model means that host cities invariably lose out. Brisbane will need a heroic effort to avoid that fate.
- Graham Young
$9b valuation on Brisbane’s Olympic bragging rights
When you’re spending other people’s money, the drive to robust cost-benefit analysis is highly diminished.
- Myriam Robin
Long lead time to help Brisbane stay on budget for 2032 Olympic Games
Brisbane may have won the right to host the 2032 Olympics, but now the hard work begins to get the city ready in time, and within the $5 billion budget.
- Mark Ludlow
Jostling begins over Brisbane’s 2032 Organising Committee
A day after the Queensland capital’s Olympic win, a public contest over management of the Games is already playing out.
- Michael Bleby and Mark Ludlow
Brisbane, the last one standing in Australia’s Olympic race
Winning the 2032 Games will help drive south-east Queensland’s economy for the next decade and help the tourism industry recover from the pandemic.
- Mark Ludlow, Michael Bleby and Liam Walsh
