Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said Friday his organisation will fight what he called an unreasonable proposal to hold some of the swimming finals at the 2016 Rio Games late at night.
American TV networks want the final sessions to begin at 10:00 pm local time, meaning some gold medals would be decided after midnight.
Coates said discussions were underway to change the draft schedule to protect the athletes.
“It’s a matter that the AOC will now take up with the international swimming body FINA and with the International Olympic Committee,” he told reporters.
“It’s just an unreasonable demand on the athletes to be competing at that time of night.”
Coates said the requirement for medallists to undergo post-race drug testing was another problem with late starts.
But the AOC said it was generally satisfied with overall preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Games after earlier raising concerns.
“We weren’t very happy a few months ago but we are much more happy with the progress now, although the construction timetables are very tight,” Coates said.
“We inspected the Olympic village and it is absolutely outstanding but we will continue to monitor it as the IOC should.”
The Rio Olympics take place from August 5-21, 2016.