Mikee Cojuangco to oversee Brisbane 2032 Olympics planning for IOC

IOC executive board Mikaela “Mikee” Cojuangco Jaworski from the Philippines. –IOC HANDOUT

BRISBANE, Australia — Mikaela “Mikee” Cojuangco Jaworski has been elevated to lead the IOC’s coordination commission for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and will get her first on-the-ground planning update from local organizers later this month.

Jaworski, a former actress who competed in equestrian for Philippines, was selected as 2032 commission chair on Monday to replace Kirsty Coventry, a gold medal-winning swimmer from Zimbabwe set to take over as president of the International Olympic Committee next month.

READ: ‘Find solution,’ Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski tells POC

Andrew Liveris, president of the local organizing committee, said he welcomed a May 20-22 visit by the IOC leadership “as our attention shifts from strategy to planning and eventually delivery of our Games in 2032.”

Jaworski trained in Australia over 20 years, working with three-time Olympian Vicki Roycroft.

FILE – Philippines’ Mikaela Jaworski with horse Globe Platinum Leap of Faith clears an obstacle at a speed course during the equestrian individual qualifying event at 23rd South East Asian Games in suburban Alabang, south of Manila, Philippines on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

“Mikaela has a deep understanding and history of time in Australia … and has been a positive and supportive voice as part of Brisbane 2032’s co-ordination commission since its formation,” Liveris said Tuesday. “I look forward to welcoming Mikaela and our co-ordination commission to Brisbane this month for our first in-country meeting and the chance to provide detailed updates on our progress.”

Jaworski, an Asian Games gold medalist in 2002, joined the IOC’s executive board in 2020 and has been on the coordination commission for the Tokyo, Paris and Brisbane Games.

READ: Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski elected to IOC Executive Board

She is now expected to oversee the planning and delivery of the Brisbane Olympics on behalf of the IOC, working with local organizers and international sports federations.

In March, the Queensland government unveiled a major overhaul of venue planning more than 1,300 days after the state capital was awarded the 2032 Summer Games. It included a new main stadium, a sailing venue in the Whitsunday islands and rowing in a crocodile-inhabited river in Rockhampton.

David Crisafulli, the third premier of Queensland state in the almost four years since Brisbane won the bid, said the “time has come to just get on with it … and build.”