Meet the man who runs the Olympics

In Brisbane’s south-east, the decrepit QEII Stadium with multicoloured seats and rust on the outer steel beams sits ready for a makeover. Having starred as the main venue for the 1982 Commonwealth Games, it’s supposed to be the home of the athletics for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games. That’s if the current plans go ahead.

Brisbane has eight years left to prepare for the Olympics, and no one can agree on anything. The city is now onto its third set of plans to upgrade the old QEII, Lang Park’s Suncorp Stadium and the Gabba – at a cost of about $2.6  billion which many consider wildly optimistic. In March, the Queensland government rejected a proposal to create a $3.4 billion new stadium to replace the Gabba, but if the October state election brings in a new government, there’s every possibility it will throw venue plans back up in the air.