John Coates (sports administrator)

John Dowling Coates AC (born 7 May 1950) is an Australian lawyer, sports administrator and businessman.

He is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is the current president of the Australian Olympic Committee and chairman of the Australian Olympic Foundation.

Personal

Born in Sydney, the son of a solicitor, Coates was brought up in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield. He attended Homebush Boys High School. He was keen on sports at school, captaining a representative cricket XI. He took a day off school in early 1964 to watch Richie Benaud play his last test match, and a photograph appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald the next day of a beaming Coates alongside Benaud as he left the field of play. Failing to make the school's senior cricket sides he took up rowing when the school introduced the sport in 1966, coxing the school's boats to victories over more experienced crews from established rowing schools at several regattas.

After leaving school he qualified as a solicitor.

The father of six children, he is now divorced.

Career as a sports administrator

Having remained involved with the sport of rowing, including a stint coaching the Newington College crews, Coates was in 1978 elected to the (now defunct) position of Honorary Secretary of the Australian Amateur Rowing Council (now Rowing Australia) and in 1983 became President (and from 1984 Chairman). He continued in this role until...
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