JOIN USAustralia Olympic team boss hails Tokyo as 'roadmap' to Brisbane 2032
Australia's chef de mission Ian Chesterman said Sunday that the Tokyo Olympics had provided organisers of the Brisbane 2032 Games with "a roadmap" for their own event.
He hailed Japan's resilience and organisational skills, rating the pandemic-postponed 2020 Games "11 out of 10".
"Tokyo has certainly been a show of great organisation and commitment and provides an even better roadmap to go forward than what we had coming out of Rio (in 2016)," he said.
"So we thank very much the Japanese organisers who have done an incredible job working for an extra 15 months to make this happen."
"It's not the Games they had planned for, but they still delivered and the athletes will always be grateful for that," he added.
Chesterman also reflected on the success of the Australian athletes in Tokyo -- Australia were sixth on the medals table with 17 golds on the final day of action.
"Our medal tally was exceptional. I'm very proud of these young people, and sometimes not so young," he said in reference to 62-year-old equestrian competitor Anthony Hoy, who won two medals.
"Australia has taken this group into their hearts. Even though these Games were different to any other, the way our athletes supported each other made this a memorable experience for every member of this team."
Chesterman said the team had had zero Covid cases despite a scare among the track-and-field athletes earlier in the Games.
He chose not to comment on various incidents involving Australian athletes.
Five men's hockey players were reprimanded on Friday for breaking the Tokyo Olympics' "bubble" by sneaking out of the Athletes' Village to buy beer.
The men's football and sevens rugby teams have also been criticised over their boozy antics on a flight back to Sydney.
