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Rio Olympics 2016: Australia is already suffering Kitty fatigue

Chiller at one of her media conferences.

Chiller at one of her media conferences. Photo: Getty

ANALYSIS

The Games are less than a week away and the nation has already been struck by Kitty fatigue.

The Australian Olympic team’s chef de mission, Kitty Chiller, just won’t stop moaning.

On her appointment, Chiller made it clear she wouldn’t be taking any nonsense from the troops.

Early on she had tennis bad boys Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic in her sights, and it was no surprise that after multiple behaviour warnings from Chiller, both pulled the plug.

Since then, Chiller has attracted international attention for her blunt comments.

With the world’s press all ears, she’s whinged about the blocked toilets, the dodgy wiring and the general filth of Australia’s Olympic Village accommodation.

Australia's Olympic Games accomodation. Photo: Getty

Australia’s Olympic Games accommodation. Photo: Getty

She packed the team into more up-market ‘digs’, while Rio’s tongue-in-cheek mayor Eduardo Paes offered to send the Australians a kangaroo to make them feel more at home.

When Kitty and the team did eventually return to the Village, the apartment block almost went up in smoke, and as they evacuated, some enterprising locals walked off with laptops and clothing.

Chiller has also offered the occasional survival tip.

When superbugs sprouted from the sewerage in Brazil’s Guanabara Bay she told the ‘yachties’ to “keep your mouths” shut if they happened to fall in.

Many Brazilians must be wishing she’d do the same.

Let’s face it, the Australians have had a rough few days in Rio, but Chiller’s outbursts have made matters worse.

Chiller must be told by the Australian Olympic Committee to tone it down.

Or they could always put someone else up to front the press conferences for the next few days.

We haven’t heard much from Olympic ‘supremo’ John Coates or AOC spokesman Mike Tancred. Now might be the time.

What Chiller should realise is that these Games have been organised amid economic and political crises.

Rio’s broke, homicide rates are on the rise, and there are drug wars ongoing in the favelas.

In Brazil's favelas, locals play by their own rules. Photo: Getty

In Brazil’s favelas, locals play by their own rules. Photo: Getty

While the Games are proceeding next week, a Senate committee will be deciding on whether suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has a case to answer over hiding public accounts prior to her 2014 re-election.

If so, her trial will take place before the end of the Paralympics.

On Friday, it was announced that Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will face trial for obstructing anti-corruption investigations.

Under Lula, Rio was awarded the Olympics in 2009.

Neither he nor Rousseff will be attending Friday’s opening ceremony.

Instead, the visiting heads of 45 governments will be hosted by Brazil’s unpopular interim head of state, Michel Tenner.

The IOC opposes the use of the Games for political purposes.

Over the next month, the streets of Rio will be politicised as pro-Rousseff and Lula supporters use the Games to protest against the court proceedings and Tenner’s interim government.

Amid these crises, Chiller is carrying on like a disgruntled Australian tourist, expecting five-star treatment in a city and country beset by five-star problems.

Chiller has had it up to here with Rio. Photo: Getty

Chiller has had it up to here with Rio. Photo: Getty

The chef de mission’s role is not merely managerial, though. It is also ambassadorial.

She and her team are representing Australia at the world’s foremost sporting festival.

Chiller is no longer the hard-edged and brave Olympic modern pentathlete who represented Australia at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

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Kitty Chiller represented Australia in modern pentathlon at the Sydney Olympics. Photo: AP

She knows the managerial ropes, having been deputy chef de mission to Nick Green in London, and is a polished media performer.

But in Rio, she needs to be a diplomat.

Chiller must recognise that sport plays a pivotal role in fostering Australian interests abroad.

The Olympics – and to a lesser extent the Commonwealth Games – are major vehicles in which this country promotes itself on world stages. Not just as sporting men and women, but as informed global citizens with an understanding of, and empathy for, other nations and peoples.

So far, Chiller has failed in this role.

The people of Rio deserve to see the better side of Australia – and Kitty Chiller.

They have done a remarkable job under exceptional circumstances in hosting these Games and will pay a heavy price for the privilege.

Dr Tom Heenan teaches sports studies at Monash University.

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