Veteran Coates still surprised by cut and thrust involved in politics of Olympics Two hats: John Coates will remain AOC president during his tenure as IOC vice-president. IT takes a lot to catch out John Coates, who has spent more than half a lifetime on the front line of sporting politics and administration in Australia and around the world. But there are still moments when the 63-year-old Australian Olympic Committee president finds himself taken aback by what unfolds - as he was early this week. Coates, also a Sydney lawyer, is recognised by many as Australia's most influential and dogged sports administrator - one who is not shy of a boardroom scrap. But he says the tension when 115 International Olympic Committee members convened on the final day of the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires to vote in German Thomas Bach as the new IOC president was as great as he has ever felt. Quite a statement from someone whose career began at the 1976 Montreal Olympics as section manager of the Australian team for rowing, a sport the former Homebush High School student and polio victim loves dearly and participated in as a coxswain. "Politics in the IOC is every bit as tough as anything you will see," Coates says. You have 115 people, Olympic champions, government ministers ... and businessmen. People are trying to do deals, saying: 'You drop out and those votes will come to me.' People who are representative of groups [are] getting groups together to support particular people. The politics and tension was ... as high as anything I have seen. I haven't sat at the start of an eights [race] at the Olympics, but I imagine it would have been like that. Coates naturally revelled in the atmosphere, saying it "was very, very interesting." He is certainly not without the credentials for it, with his career in sports administration rising steadily through rowing - from club, to state, national and international levels to the Olympic committee level he is at now. Throughout, he has worked closely - and "crossed swords" - with people and professionals of the ilk who swirled around him at last week's IOC session. Coates took a little time out to celebrate his elevation to the IOC vice-presidency, and that of Bach as the IOC's ninth president, over a good serve of "Argentinian steak and a glass or two of wine." The two are close friends, and they have worked together since 1994 on the Court of Arbitration for Sport, of which Coates is still the president. But Coates realises next year's winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Games in Rio are fast approaching, and with controversy surrounding both. The Rio Games are already under a cloud over feared delays in construction and congestion and public "unrest" over the financial investment in the Games. But the more immediate issue of the Russian government's position on homosexuality will remain a concern at the Sochi Games "until the closing ceremony," says Coates. Coates, who will continue as AOC president during his IOC vice-presidency, hopes the issue can be addressed without major incident. We had to deal with the Tibetan issue leading into Beijing [in 2008], just as we are already having to deal with social unrest in Brazil and Rio in particular. This isn't new in this case. But the law is not to outlaw homosexuality. It outlaws the promotion of it in front of minors, people under 18. We sought clarification as to the impact of that on our teams and the people going to the Games. We received assurances that no one is going to interfere with the rights of any athletes or spectators if they are gay. I accept that. However, he does not believe the Games will pass without some testing moments. "I imagine what will happen is that a lot of people in the Russian community and people worldwide will view this as an infringement of civil liberties," he says. Some spectators, I imagine, will come to Sochi, will protest and want to test them on this issue. It won't be easy, but I believe that athletes, like any member of the community, have a right to express their opinion, but the problem for us is that we are in another jurisdiction. We have to respect the sovereignty of the Russians, as we had to respect the sovereignty of the Chinese. We are going to tread carefully through this problem. On anti-doping, Coates is confident that progress is being made, but like many he agrees that the advance is not so much due to testing but to investigative work - and with agencies such as the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority getting more power. "We have learnt that testing itself is not enough," Coates says. [Lance] Armstrong showed and Marion Jones showed us the benefit of co-operating with other government agencies to acquire information and evidence. It is something I've been pushing for a long time in Australia, legislation that ASADA gets more power. Coates says recent doping controversies in Australia - from probes into the NRL and AFL to the case of cyclist Stuart O'Grady, who confessed after this year's Tour de France to doping in 1998 - have not damaged Australia's image at the IOC level. He says there has been interest in the investigative work by Australian agencies into the football codes and the AOC's policy of all athletes signing a declaration that they have not doped. People ask, 'Are you embarrassed by all this?', Coates says. I say, 'Not at all'. We are continuing to learn from these cases. I don't like to see what's happening but if it's going to have some long-term benefit and people realise you are going to be found out, that's fine. That's how it is viewed internationally. Coates has even been in communication with O'Grady - by letter - and says that despite his confession, the "door is open" for a return the "Olympic movement." "Stuart wrote back to me and he thought we were a bit quick to move on him," Coates says. He acknowledged that he should have explained himself when he made the statutory declaration ... I explained in my response that: 'Look, you've got a lot of friends, particularly on our athletes' commission, who will always regard you highly. You have to understand that our action was because we have a rule that you make a statutory declaration, an honest one as to your doping history that you avoided doing. I said that I would hope he would have a talk to the chair of our athletes' commission, Kim Crow, because he said he wanted to be able to help others and use his position as an example. I said, 'I am sure she and our committee would like to engage with you in that'. I expect that will happen in time, when he is ready, and he may be one of those who speak at some of our team assemblies and briefing sessions. Coates is also interested in the eagerness of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who tested positive after winning the 1988 Olympic 100m final, to meet with him during his current visit to Australia as part of the SKINS#ChooseTheRightTrack campaign. "He is a tragic lesson," Coates says. It is good the new WADA code does in some of its penalties recognise the opportunity for people to confess and help us in the fight against doping. Ben Johnson's case is an example for what you shouldn't be doing.