Opinion | Sebastian Coe is right man to steer IAAF out of scandalous mud
He’s a man of remarkable accomplishments and endless contradictions. However, Lord Sebastian Coe is showing once again that in order to succeed at the highest levels, shameless ambition and convenient memory loss are imperative.
As the recently elected president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Coe has been entrusted to right the group after a seemingly devastating scandal rocked the organisation.
A former Olympic gold medallist, Coe is also the golden boy behind the hugely successful 2012 London Olympics
Allegations that the IAAF under Coe’s predecessor, Lamine Diack, was not just woefully neglectful, but criminally complicit in abetting and profiting from a systematic Russian doping ring have put the IAAF squarely on the defensive. A report produced by the World Anti-Doping Association (Wada) found odious layers of kickbacks beyond the Russian doping scandal.
This being corruption and international sports, Qatar makes an obligatory cameo as well with accusations now rife that they attempted to pay off select IAAF members and associates to get the 2017 World Track and Field Championships, which subsequently went to London.
READ MORE: Doping report: Corruption ‘embedded’ in IAAF with Lamine Diack running fiefdom
According to former Wada president and author of the report Dick Pound, corruption was deeply embedded at the IAAF with blame to be spread all around. “The IAAF council could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics and the non-enforcement of applicable anti-doping rules,” Pound said last week when he released the second part at a press conference in Munich.
