A page was turned, Wednesday August 19, for world athletics. Sebastian Coe, 58, succeeded Lamine Diack, 82, as president of the IAAF. A British to replace a Senegalese. A former middle distance specialist in place of a former long jumper.
For the IAAF, the change will not only be cultural and linguistic. With Sebastian Coe, who will officially receive the keys to the institution on Sunday August 30, on the last evening of the World Championships in Beijing, the International Athletics Federation is getting a facelift. She is also preparing for her future. The Briton explained it in his own way, less than an hour after his election: “This campaign was long and difficult. But it allowed our sport to pause, look inward and consider what the next 30 or 40 years will look like. »
Elected with 115 votes, compared to 92 for his rival Sergei Bubka, Sebastian Coe promised a lot during these long months of campaigning. He will now have to keep his promises. The first is financial: distribute to each of the 214 national federations the sum of 200.000 dollars per Olympics, i.e. double the funds allocated until then by the IAAF from the income paid by the IOC. She has the means. Easy, then.
The rest looks less arithmetic. On the issue of doping, the most media-focused of the moment, the Briton wants to innovate by creating an independent agency responsible for hunting down cheaters. “But I also want to continue to place all my confidence in the IAAF team in charge of the fight against doping,” he insisted. The task will not be simple. It was not for Lamine Diack. She won't be any more for him.
Sebastian Coe also wants to reform the calendar, to make it more readable, “more understandable for the entire public”. How? Mystery. The Briton wants to give himself time. He won't have much, given the turning point he is on this thorny issue.
He also wants to attract young people, give athletics a priority place in schools, and take it out of the stadium. How? Here too, Sebastian Coe does not wish to respond yet. He wants time. But having visited the 214 member countries of the IAAF, from the richest to the poorest, having covered more than 700.000 km by plane since the last end-of-year holidays, he claims to know today the reality of each one and everyone's expectations.
While waiting to see the double Olympic 1500m champion settle into his presidential office in Monaco, the IAAF took advantage of its Congress in Beijing to take a first step towards its future. Its delegates made several changes on Wednesday in Beijing:
– limiting the number of mandates for the president to three;
– a member of the Council cannot be elected, or re-elected, if he reaches 70 years of age in the year of his election;
– at least one of the four vice-presidents of the IAAF must be a woman.
A first step towards a form of modernity. What happens next will have to be more radical. “Athletics is the number one sport and I am thrilled to be the president of the number one sport,” said Sebastian Coe. I will do everything in my power to ensure that our sport retains its values, its heritage and the solid foundations that President Lamine Diack bequeathed to me. » The Briton should also succeed the Senegalese as a member of the IOC, probably next summer during the session of the Olympic institution in Rio de Janeiro. Follow in his footsteps, of course, but deviate from them early enough to chart your own course.
