I can fix damaged AOC: John Coates

May 6, 2017 - 7:13 AM John Coates says he'll easily repair a divided Olympic family after retaining his mantle as Australian sport's most important figure.

After a rugged election campaign, Coates defeated Danni Roche 58-35 in Saturday's vote for the Australian Olympic Committee presidency.

Coates' tenure will stretch in to a third decade - he'll quit after the Tokyo 2020 Games.

"They all know this is my last term as president," Coates told reporters after the AOC annual general meeting in Sydney.

"There are people with greater corporate experience and greater intellect than me that are amongst these candidates."

Coates had never been challenged since taking the role in 1990, and Olympic hockey gold medallist Roche won significant reforms just by running.

"Although the AOC's members didn't vote for a change in president, the past six weeks marks a pivotal moment in Australian sport," Roche told reporters.

"We have started a much-needed conversation about the future direction of Australian sport ... there is certainly a strong desire for change."

Coates acknowledged the unseemly campaign had damaged the AOC's brand but said it was "easily repairable".

"Election campaigns are going to be rigorous," he said.

"I'm not getting in to any blame. The election is over.

"What I might have said, what others said about me - that is over.

"Just move forward."

But fallout awaits from claims of bullying under his watch.

Coates' long-time ally, media director Mike Tancred, is facing bullying claims made by former AOC chief executive Fiona de Jong. A three-person independent tribunal will rule within a month.

And wider allegations of workplace bullying within Coates' AOC are still to be investigated.

Coates keeps his International Olympic Committee vice-presidency by winning the vote.

And his preferred picks for the two AOC vice-president roles, Ian Chesterman and Helen Brownlee, also retained their roles after being challenged by Roche-backed Andrew Plympton.

Much of Coates' ticket was also elected to the AOC executive board.

Coates backed his ticket by sending 'how to vote' text messages at each round of voting - a sore point in the Roche camp, who had been refused contact details of delegates by the AOC, citing privacy reasons.

"This was a contested election, those texts were no different to, in content, emails that I had been sending, ... (about) my preferred team," Coates said.

"So no apologies for that. It was an election. So be it."

The AOC's athletes' commission, chaired by pole vault Olympic champion Steve Hooker, said the vote for Coates came with a clear proviso.

"Our support was conditional on things changing," Hooker said.

His deputy on the commission, rowing gold medallist Kim Brennan, said change was now expected.

"In a lot of ways, the work starts now," Brennan said.

"We would like to see a smooth transition out of John's presidency.

"What we heard loud and clear was that people want change."

Source: AAP