International Olympic Committee vice-president John Coates on Thursday denied bullying a female politician to attend the Tokyo Games opening ceremony, after some labelled him a “mansplaining dinosaur”.
Coates, also the head of the Australian Olympic Committee, publicly berated Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk over her plans not to attend the event, after her state capital Brisbane was named 2032 host city late Wednesday.
“You are going to the opening ceremony,” he said, crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair.
“I’m still the deputy chair of the candidature leadership group and so far as I understand, there will be an opening and closing ceremony in 2032 and all of you are going to get along there and understand the traditional parts of that, what’s involved in an opening ceremony,” he said.