AOC: International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is coming to Australia this week to hold a series of high-powered meetings, with a future Australian Olympic bid set to be a hot topic.
The first stop on the busy schedule will be with Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Federal Health and Sport Minister Sussan Ley in Canberra on Wednesday morning.
AOC President and IOC Vice President John Coates will also travel to Canberra with Bach.
Bach's visit comes as the South East Queensland Council of Mayors launch a feasibility study to determine whether to proceed with a Brisbane-centred bid to host the 2028 Olympics.
AOC president John Coates has backed the feasibility study and told the south-east Queensland mayors that their study should be completed by the end of next year.
If the bid is to go ahead, federal and state government support, along with corporate and sport sector backing, would be needed in 2017.
On Wednesday afternoon Bach and Coates will tour Sydney Olympic Park with NSW Premier Mike Baird, NSW Sports Minister Stuart Ayres and former Olympics Minister Michael Knight.
The tour to showcase the legacy from Sydney 2000 will include a visit to the Olympic Stadium to recapture some of the magic from the ‘best Games ever’.
The touring party will visit a plaque from the Munich 1972 Games and the cauldron from the 2000 Games. Bach, who won gold at the Montreal 1976 Games in the fencing team event for Germany, will then meet with some young Australian fencers.
A media conference and function will be held back in the Sydney CBD. It will be followed by dinner with Kerry Stokes, who is extremely passionate about the Games and the chairman of Olympic television rightsholder Channel Seven.
On Thursday morning Bach will do an exclusive interview with Olympic broadcasting legend Bruce McAvaney, before meeting with Mayors from South East Queensland.
Bach and his IOC party are then headed to Fiji for the Oceania National Olympic Committee (ONOC) meetings. The last time an IOC President came to Australia was back in 2005 when Jacques Rogge attended ONOC in Brisbane.
Bach has been travelling extensively of late meeting with several world leaders. Before arriving in Australia late on Tuesday evening he was in India meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Check back to olympics.com.au and follow on social media @AUSOlympicTeam for updates from the visit.
AOC
