Kitty Chiller

Kitty Chiller

Chiller at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Born	2 October 1964 Melbourne, Australia
Height	168 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	57 kg (9 st 0 lb)
Sport
Country	Australia
Sport	Modern pentathlon
Club	Vampa

Kitty Chiller (born 2 October 1964) is a former modern pentathlete who represented Australia at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In 2013 she was named as the Chef de Mission for Australia at the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Personal life

Chiller was born in Melbourne.^[1] She completed an arts degree in criminology and Latin at the University of Melbourne in 1985.^[2]

Athletic career

Chiller first competed internationally while she was a student at university. Initially she took part in the sport of aquathon before she joined the University of Melbourne fencing club and began her modern pentathlon career. She was national champion on 12 occasions, won seven World Cup medals and was ranked number one in the world in 1996, 1997 and 1998.^[3]

She competed in the women's event at the 2000 Summer Olympics held in her home nation. She placed 16th in the shooting component, 18th in fencing, 10th in swimming, 2nd in riding and 14th in the run, gaining a total of 4886 points and finishing 14th overall in the event.^[1] Following the Games she announced her retirement from the sport.^[2]

Sports administration career

Following her retirement from competition she took up a position at the Holmesglen Institute of TAFE in Melbourne where she was responsible for providing training to 15,000 members of the workforce for the 2006 Commonwealth Games that were held in the city. She also worked on training for the 2006 Asian Games, held in Doha, Qatar and spent 20 months living in the city.^[2]

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, held in London, United Kingdom, Chiller was the Deputy Chef de Mission of the Australian team; working under the Chef de Mission, former Olympic rower Nick Green, she was responsible for athlete and support services as well as the medical headquarters.^[4]

In 2013, ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Australian Olympic Committee named Chiller as the Chef de Mission for the 2016 Australian team; she is the first female to hold the role for Australia.^[4][5]

In addition to her job with the Australian Olympic team Chiller is the President of Modern Pentathlon Australia and has been appointed to the International Modern Pentathlon Union's 'Sport for All' Commission.^[6] Chiller has recently been involved in a controversial exchange of views with Nick Kyrgios. This has resulted in Kyrgios withdrawing from contention for the Olympics complaining of unfair treatment.^[7] Chiller continued her insistence upon discipline amongst current athletes, by banning Rio gold medallist Emma McKeon and fellow swimmer Josh Palmer from the Olympic closing ceremony after both breached team protocols.^[8] The ban on Emma McKeon was later revoked.^[9]

References

1. "Kitty Chiller". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
2. "Alumni Profile: Kitty Chiller". The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
3. "Kitty Chiller Athlete Biography". Australian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
4. Mackay, Duncan (23 August 2013). "Australia appoints first female Chef de Mission for Rio 201". Inside the Games. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
5. McDonald, Margie (24 August 2013). "Kitty Chiller first woman appointed to role of Australia's chef de mission". The Australian. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
6. "Chef Chiller on new Commission". Australian Olympic Committee. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
7. "Nick Kyrgios pulls out of Rio Olympics due to 'unfair and unjust treatment'". The Guardian. 3 June 2016.
8. "Australian Olympic swimmers banned from closing ceremony after Rio night out". The Guardian. 19 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
9. "Rio Olympics 2016: Emma McKeon has closing ceremony ban lifted". BBC Sport. 20 August 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.