Seven-time Chef de Mission of the Australian Olympic Team, Ian Chesterman, has been elected as the new President of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).
Chesterman succeeds John Coates who steps down from his leadership after 32 years.
Chesterman was first elected to the Executive Committee in 2001. He became AOC Vice President in 2016 and a Life Member in 2018.
He was the Chef de Mission for the Australian Winter Teams, beginning at the Nagano 1998 Winter Games and lasting through the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics
In his final speech as the AOC President, Coates said the Executive Committee had approved a contribution of $140,000 to the Solidarity Fund of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“We are part of an international sporting movement raising its powerful voice. We will continue to use it until this crisis is over,” Coates said.
The Solidarity Fund was established to support the athletes of Ukraine, who are still currently defending their country against the Russian invasion.
Thomas Bach, the IOC President, addressed the meeting and said the Olympic Movement had to act swiftly to resolve the crisis.
“Our actions were two-fold: sanctioning and protective measures. This involved finding the right balance between, on the one hand, sanctioning those in the Russian government who are responsible for this war; and on the other hand, protecting the integrity and fairness of global competitions by not allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in competitions, or to at least prohibit any identification of their nationality.”
“At the same time, we have strengthened our humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian Olympic community. We have been overwhelmed with an outpouring of solidarity from stakeholders across the Olympic Movement. To make this assistance as efficient as possible we have not only established a Solidarity Fund, we have also called on our IOC Member Sergey Bubka in his capacity as President of the NOC of Ukraine, to lead our efforts,” Bach said.
The 93 voting delegates were composed of representatives from the various National Federations of Australia’s Olympic Movement. They were also made up of members of the Executive Committee and the Athletes’ Commission.