Jana drama a solo show
March 13, 2006
AUSTRALIA has had hundreds of athletes who could handle the sort of pressure that was forcing Jana Pittman to flee to England, according to Olympic boss John Coates.
He also said Pittman’s situation would not push the AOC to consider changing the way it advises athletes on dealing with public scrutiny for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Pittman said she will move to England with her English fiance Chris Rawlinson after the Commonwealth Games, blaming Australian media for depicting her as a “villain”.
Her trials since the 2004 Olympics have been a constant source of public interest – as have those of rower Sally Robbins who stopped in the eights final at Athens Games.
But Coates, the Australian Olympic Committee president, said their respective situations did not signal a need for change in how the AOC helps athletes handle media attention.
“We aren’t planning any changes to our guidelines on how you interact with the media or anything like that,” said Coates.
“I don’t see that – and you’ve given a couple of examples – but there were 482 people [on Australia’s Athens Olympic team] who seemed to have handled the last experience very well.”
Coates said he “can empathise” with Pittman, but added that such high-profile athletes in a sport where money was earned and publicity important had to learn to deal with it.
“I am not sure it is any worse than it has been,” said Coates, when asked if the pressure on sports stars was increasing.
“Surely, in the Olympic sports, the most scrutiny must have been leading into the Sydney Olympic Games. We seemed to have coped with that.”
As for Pittman’s decision to move to England after marrying Rawlinson, Coates said if she does follow through with it she will have no option but to still run for Australia.
Pittman has not indicated whether she intends to switch nationalities after the move with her English fiance.
But Coates warned against it. “She is probably running out of time. You need three years to do that and you need to step outside competition,” he said. “So I can’t imagine that is the case. I would assume that she is still [planning on] competing for Australia.”
He also said that until – and if – Pittman is selected for the Australian Olympic team for the Beijing games, the issue is not one for the AOC to deal with, but Athletics Australia.