Kitty Chiller


Kitty Chiller 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. She completed an arts degree in criminology and Latin at the University of Melbourne in 1985. Both of her elder sisters died of cancer, aged 49 and 53.

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.
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. Following the Games she announced her retirement from the sport.

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.
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.
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.
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. 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. 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. The ban on Emma McKeon was later revoked.
In December 2017, Kitty Chiller was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Gymnastics Australia.