(ATR) Fiona de Jong is the first woman to be appointed secretary general of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).
A lawyer and former triathlete, De Jong took the position of secretary general on Thursday, after serving as the director of sport for the AOC for ten years. She succeeds Craig Phillips, who resigned as secretary general in June 2014.
"I’ve always been passionate about sport, and I have a huge desire to advance the AOC and the Olympic movement," De Jong said in a release on Thursday before adding that she "can’t wait to get back to work."
"After ten years [of] operational experience with the AOC, Fiona is totally prepared to assume the role of secretary general," AOC president John Coates said on Thursday.
"Fiona has developed a close working relationship with our member sports, she understands perfectly their needs, and she will continue to forge stronger ties with the sports and our other key stakeholders in her new role."
De Jong is currently on maternity leave after the birth of her first child. She will start her new role on October 7.
Written by Andrew Murrell
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
