Phil Coles Cause of Death

Phil Coles, an Australian sports administrator and sprint canoer died on Saturday, January 28 2023, according to the Australian Olympic Committee. He was 91. Coles died after a brief illness, according to the AOC.

AOC president Ian Chesterman said Coles’ “service to Australian sport was immense.”

“Phil’s passing, after a lifetime in sport, is a sad day for the Olympic movement and for many involved in the wider sports community in Australia,” Chesterman said in a statement.

Phil Coles was instrumental in getting an Australian team to the 1980 Moscow Olympics despite a US-led boycott and later helped secure the 2000 Games for Sydney.

Coles was an IOC member from 1982 to 2011. He joined the AOC executive board in 1973 and was a founding member of the Oceania National Olympic Committee’s board of directors (ONOC).

In the 1983 Queen’s Birthday Honours, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for “service to sport,” and he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1993.