John Dowling Coates (born 7 May 1950) is an Australian lawyer, sports administrator and businessman. He is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) having been a vice president from 2013 to 2017 and again since 2020, and is the former president of the Australian Olympic Committee and chair of the Australian Olympic Foundation. Alongside these roles Coates is also the president of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the International Council of Arbitration for Sport.
Born in Sydney, the son of a solicitor, Coates was brought up in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield. He attended Homebush Boys High School. He was keen on sports at school, being a member of the school's fifth Grade cricket XI in 1963 He took a day off school in early 1964 to watch Richie Benaud play his last test match, and a photograph appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald the next day of a beaming young Coates alongside Benaud as he left the field of play. Failing to make the school's senior cricket sides, he took up rowing in 1967, some three years after the school had introduced the sport in 1964, coxing one of the school's boats to victories over more experienced crews from established rowing schools at several regattas. In 1968 he was captain of the school's rowing squad.
Failing to matriculate at his first attempt at the Higher School Certificate in 1967, Coates repeated Year 12 in 1968 with better results.
After leaving school he studied at the University of Sydney, and qualified as a solicitor.
Coates has been married twice. His first marriage was to the former representative rower, Pauline Kahl with whom he had six children. They are now divorced. In October 2017, after a three-year engagement, Coates married the Timor-Leste-born Orieta Pires, a hair and make-up artist. The wedding occurred in a suburban Sydney park.
Career as a sports administrator
After having remained involved with the sport of rowing through Sydney Rowing Club, Coates was in 1978 elected to the (now defunct) position of Honorary Secretary of the Australian Amateur Rowing Council (now Rowing Australia) and in 1983 became President (and from 1984 chairman). He continued in this role until 1988.
Coates has been a fixture at the Summer Olympics for more than 30 years, having been Australian Olympic Team Rowing Section Manager at the Montreal Games (1976), Administration Director at the Moscow Games (1980), Deputy Chef de Mission at the Los Angeles Games (1984), and Chef de mission at the Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) Games.
Past or current positions include:
Member of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) since 1981, having been Vice-President (1985–1990) then President (1990–2022)
Member International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2001 and an elected member of the Executive Board from 2009 to 2013, Vice-President from 2013 to 2017
Member, IOC Rio Coordination Commission and chairman, IOC Tokyo 2020 Coordination and Legal Affairs Commissions
IOC Delegate for Broadcast Rights negotiations in Oceania
Chairman of the Australian Olympic Foundation from 1996
Member (1994) and then Vice-President from 1995 and then President from 2010 of the Council of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)
Member of Sydney Olympic Park Authority since 2005 include:
a Director (1985) and then Deputy chairman (1986–1989) of the Australian Institute of Sport and as member (1987–1989) and then Deputy chairman (1989–1998) of the Australian Sports Commission
Senior Vice-President of the Organising Committee of the Sydney Olympic Games (SOCOG) from 1993 to 2000 and Chairman of SOCOG Sports Commission (1996–2000)