The "toxic battle for control of Australia's Olympic movement has intensified," with revelations the Australian Olympic Committee paid A$6.4M in commissions to sponsorship agencies in the lead-up to the Rio Games -- "almost a third of the amount spent on the team," according to Leo Schlink of the HERALD SUN. The AOC "outlaid the fortune in commissions to agencies," including in-house agency Lagadère Sports, from earnings of A$49.6M in sponsorship, licensing and online advertising from '13-16. In the same period, the AOC allocated A$19.9M to the summer Olympic team, which "slumped to 10th on the medal table" -- its lowest finish since Barcelona in '92. The "controversial seven-figure payments" emerged as the "increasingly bitter showdown" between veteran AOC President John Coates and rival Danni Roche "enters its final lap ahead of next month's historic presidency vote." The Turnbull Government reportedly favors 1996 Olympic field hockey Gold Medalist Roche, "a significant development in the high-stakes face-off." Another government source said that Coates had "long been viewed" as of the "hard Labor" and it was "not in the interest of Australian athletes that the position be politicised" (HERALD SUN, 4/20).
