Scotch College

Scotch’s man at the IOC

A former Scotch Athletics team member now runs media operations for the biggest athletics event of all –the Olympic Games.

WORDS: Mr Paul MISHURA

Anthony Edgar (’78) was a member of the Scotch Athletics teams in each of the three years he attended Scotch, winning the under 17 APS shot put before he left to attend King’s College in Sydney. It is perhaps therefore natural that he is Head of Media Operations for the International Olympic Committee, and one of four Australians working at a senior level for the IOC.

After leaving King’s College he studied at Sydney’s Julian Ashton School of Art and became interested in photography. He worked in advertising sales for a travel magazine before working for Playboy magazine, then running Marketing magazine in Sydney. Anthony then began his own business, producing a variety of magazines. He was a freelance photo-journalist at the 1996 Atlanta Games, covering volleyball, beach volleyball and athletics, after which he was employed by SOCOG, for which he oversaw all sports publications for the 2000 Olympics. Anthony then worked for the International Volleyball Federation in Lausanne, Switzerland, following work in Switzerland in his role with the International Society of Olympic Historians.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games he oversaw 25,000 media members, striking a balance between the interests of those with broadcast rights and those in the general media.

Anthony is responsible for media accreditations, guidelines, transport and accommodation, and press rooms, and is secretary of the IOC Press Commission, which is headed by Kevan Gosper (father of Dean ’75, Brett ’76 and Richard ’01). He is also secretary of the IOC’s Radio and Television Commission. During his time in the role he has had to contend with advances in technology. Before the Beijing Games, Anthony brokered a ground breaking deal with broadcast rights holder Seven to permit Australian print media to use some internet video.

Challenges in Beijing included ensuring the freedom of the foreign press in a country with tight media restrictions, and making arrangements for an event the scale of which China had never undertaken. Future challenges are much the same: Anthony is keen to preserve and promote media freedom, prevent media monopolies, and give consumers a choice. He is in a good position to achieve these objectives. GS