Coates drama grows

EMAILS that show the scorn and denigration used by Olympics chief John Coates in the workplace have emerged as the supremo battles to save his $750,000-a-year job.

The correspondence was released on a day when Coates’ media director Mike Tancred was forced to stand down over bullying claims.

Last night, Coates was locked in an emergency meeting of the AOC board, forced by the airing of bullying allegations, ahead of Saturday week’s AOC elections.

Former AOC chief executive Fiona de Jong stepped into the bitter fight for control of Australia’s premier sports body yesterday, releasing a dossier detailing 12 complaints and investigations into bullying. Seven of those complaints allegedly involve Tancred.

International Olympic Committee vice-president Coates was engulfed in a separate scandal with claims a young female employee undergoing chemotherapy was the subject of email attacks.

Coates emailed de Jong that the woman should “get out in the real world,” because he was not running “a sheltered workshop”.