Next IOC president Kirsty Coventry hands over the baton in planning for Brisbane 2032 Olympics

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Kirsty Coventry has completed a ceremonial baton change before she takes over as International Olympic Committee president next month, handing off oversight of preparations for the Brisbane 2032 Games during a three-day inspection visit to southeast Queensland state.

Mikaela Cojuangco Jaworski replaced Coventry as head of the IOC’s coordination commission for the 2032 Summer Games after the Olympic swimming champion from Zimbabwe was elected to take over from Thomas Bach in the sporting organization’s top job.

All three were part of the IOC team that met in Brisbane and the Gold Coast for their first on-the-ground update on the planning overhaul from local organizers.

“I’m here to formally hand over the baton, or the Olympic flame ... boomerang!” Coventry said as she introduced Jaworski at an IOC coordination commission news conference Thursday at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium. “I hope that I’m leaving some good vibes.”

Coventry made her Olympic competition debut at the Sydney 2000 Games and has family living in Australia. She said feels right at home after chairing the coordination commission since soon after the IOC awarded the 2032 Games to Brisbane in 2021.

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“I’m very excited about what Brisbane 2032 is going to do,” she said. “Not just for the region, but for Australia and for the world.”

It took more than 1,000 days and at least three major concept changes before a newly elected Queensland state government settled on a comprehensive venue plan in March. That includes a new 60,000-seat stadium and an aquatics center to be built in parklands close to downtown Brisbane, as well as proposals to share events with regions outside the capital.

The surprising call to host rowing in a crocodile-inhabited river in Rockhampton on the central Queensland coast has attracted concern and criticism from the public and sports administrators.

Veteran IOC Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi said there’s time for local organizers and sports federations to consider all options and collaborate on specifics for venues, and there’s absolutely no need to panic with seven years until the Brisbane Games.

“No one else but the federation can say the field of play is ready,” he said, noting who had the final sign-off on sports venues as the planning for the Olympics evolve.

“The plan always changes, and generally they change for the better,” he said. “The question is not so much whether the plan has changed — it has — but is it a better plan? The answer is yes.”

Andrew Liveris, president of the local organizing committee, said venue construction is likely to begin later next year and he’s confident the main building program will be complete at least a year out from the Games.

Dubi said anyone doubting those predictions should look at the stage Sydney’s construction program was at seven years out from the 2000 Games, and what a landmark Olympic and Paralympic Games it turned out to be in Australia’s biggest city.

He said the selection of the Victoria Park site for the main stadium and aquatic center in Brisbane “is an incredible location” and followed the good example set by Paris 2024 organizers in staging Olympic events in close to inner-city landmarks.

“So if you ask me from an operational standpoint, it’s absolutely doable,” Dubi said of Brisbane staging a memorable Olympics. “You have also this opportunity to have this venue and this number of spectators, hence creating that precinct atmosphere downtown, and that will be something incredibly special.”

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AP Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games