AOC: Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) President John Coates has appeared before the House of Lords Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Committee and highlighted Australia’s successful Olympic Winter program.

Appearing via video link at the conclusion of the 125th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Buenos Aires, the recently crowned IOC Vice President gave evidence regarding strategic issues for regeneration and sporting legacy from the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

But Coates was also called upon to reveal the “secrets” behind Australia’s surprising Winter Olympic strength.

While telling his British counterparts “you’re a bit more approximate to the European ski fields than we are,” Coates painted the AOC’s own journey in creating the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia in 1998.

“For a long time there was a government perception that this was something for rich people and the Australian Sports Commission wasn’t much interested in supporting our skiers and others,” Coates explained.

“Our national federations in those sports were very under-resourced and we didn’t have any sports science or medicine back up for them here in Australia and particularly overseas- they have to spend more time than anyone away looking for the European winter.”

So it was that the AOC established the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia in 1998. Originally fully funded by the AOC, state governments and their institutes of sport now fund it 2:1, and the results speak for themselves.

“You can now capture kids from skateboard parks, surfboard riding, from the beach… We’ve got beach sprint champions who are now talent ID’d and in our Skeleton teams, and (track and field) athletes who are in our Bobsleigh teams,” Coates said.

“Through a centralised institute of just five or six federations, we’re getting amazing results.

“This last winter we got medals in 30 world cups and world championships and we won four world championship medals in Olympic comparisons. We were 18th in the medal tally last time and we think realistically we might be top 15.”

With the continued evolution of the Olympic Winter program to include edgier events, Australia’s winter future only brightens.

“The winter program has been greatly improved with new events that are attractive to young people- the Aerial Skiing, the Halfpipe and all these things- and we’re attracting kids- in our case who have come from the surf movement, from the beaches, from the skateboard parks and we’re talent identifying them and putting them in,” Coates explained.

Prime examples of that legacy in action are dual beach flags world champion Melissa Hoar who is aiming for her second Olympic start in Skeleton, rollerblade star turned speed skater Daniel Greig, and Manly surfers/ snowboard world champions Alex “Chumpy” Pullin, Nate Johnstone and Holly Crawford.

For more of Coates' assessment at the House of Lords, click here >>