Incoming IOC head Coventry hands over the baton in planning for Brisbane 2032 Olympics

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) - Kirsty Coventry has completed a ceremonial baton change before she takes over as International Olympic Committee president next month, handing off oversight of preparations for the Brisbane 2032 Games during a three-day inspection visit to southeast Queensland state.

Mikaela Cojuangco Jaworski replaced Coventry as head of the IOC's coordination commission for the 2032 Summer Games after the Olympic swimming champion from Zimbabwe was elected to take over from Thomas Bach in the sporting movement's top job.

All three were part of the IOC team that met in Brisbane and Gold Coast for their first on-the-ground update on the planning overhaul from local organizers.

"I'm here to formally hand over the baton, or the Olympic flame, boomerang over to," Jaworski, Coventry said. "I hope that I'm leaving some good vibes."

Coventry made her Olympic competition debut at the Sydney 2000 Games and has family living in Australia, and said she feels right at home after chairing the coordination commission since soon after the IOC awarded the 2032 Games to Brisbane in 2021.

"I'm very excited about what Brisbane 2032 is going to do - not just for the region, but for Australia and for the world."

It took more than 1,000 days and major concept changes before a newly elected Queensland state government settled on a comprehensive venue plan in March. That includes a new 60,000-seat stadium and an aquatics center in the Victoria Park precinct close to downtown Brisbane, as well as proposals to share events with regions outside the capital.

The surprising call to host rowing in a crocodile-inhabited river in Rockhampton on the central Queensland coast has attracted concern and criticism from the public and sports administrators.

Veteran IOC Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi said there’s time for local organizers and sports federations to consider options and collaborate, and there’s absolutely no need to panic with seven years until the Brisbane Games.

"No one else but the federation can say the field of play is ready," he said, noting who had the final sign-off on sports venues as the planning for the Olympics evolve.

"The plan always changes, and generally they change for the better," he said. "The question is not so much whether the plan has changed - it has - but is it a better plan? The answer is yes.”

Andrew Liveris, president of the local organizing committee, said venue construction is likely to begin later in 2026 and he’s confident the main building program will be complete a year out from the Games.

Dubi said doubters should look at the stage Sydney planning was in seven years out from the 2000 Games.

He said the selection of the greenfield site for the main stadium and aquatic center in Brisbane "is an incredible location" and Paris 2024 organizers had set a good example in that regard.

"So if you ask me from an operational standpoint, it's absolutely doable," he said. "You have also this opportunity to have this venue and this number of spectators, hence creating that precinct atmosphere downtown, and that will be something incredibly special."

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