Lord Coe vows to make athletics 'responsible and accountable'
By Reuters
Last Updated: 02/12/15 7:57pm
IAAF president Lord Coe insists he is the right man to clean up athletics and make it responsible and accountable in the wake of the doping crisis that has embroiled the sport.
The head of athletics' world governing body, quizzed by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee on Wednesday, was accused of lacking curiosity during a three-hour inquisition and admitted failures had been made but he remained the person to lead the sport out of the mire.
Asked if he was up to the task, the two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist said: "I have the experience to do that and I have the support of the sport. Have there been failures? Yes. Will I fix them? Yes.
"If I don't do that I know there will be no tomorrows in our sport. I want a responsible and accountable sport. I want a sport people can trust," said Coe, a former Member of Parliament and now a member of the upper chamber, the House of Lords.
Athletics was plunged into crisis last month over a report by the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency that detailed systematic, state-sponsored doping and related corruption in Russia.
The IAAF has since voted overwhelmingly to suspend Russia from the sport, potentially casting one of track and field's most successful nations out of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
The IAAF itself has also been beset by corruption allegations regarding the taking of bribes to cover up doping. The retired Lamine Diack, who Coe succeeded as president, was last month placed under formal investigation by French authorities on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.
The 82-year-old Senegalese is alleged to have received more than 1m euros in bribes in 2011 to cover up positive doping tests of Russian athletes. Diack's family has dismissed what they called the "excessive and insignificant accusations".
Coe has steadfastly denied that the governing body of athletics had been complacent in its handling of doping cases and rebuffed criticism that he, as Diack's deputy since 2007, must have known the extent of the problems in the sport.
"My vice presidency role is non-executive. It was about 10 days a year. We have a clear separation between anti-doping and non-executive committee," he said. "I was aware that we had a problem but not the specific numbers. If you're asking specifically about names and numbers, I would not have known that."
Coe was widely criticised for describing German broadcaster ARD and Sunday Times' August allegations that the IAAF had ignored widespread blood-doping as a "declaration of war on our sport".
Journalists had obtained a database of athletes' blood tests over an 11-year period and concluded, after an examination by two experts, that it contained hundreds of suspicious results that the IAAF should have acted on.
Coe, who last week stepped down from his ambassadorial role with Nike after facing repeated questions about a potential conflict of interest, said he stuck with the sentiment but could have chosen his words differently.
"It probably expressed my frustration and anger at the time," said Coe. "I was being contacted by clean athletes and coaches at how they were having their reputations imperiled."
"The issue I took exception to was very selective use of data that could not be used to prove positive tests. Just putting data out into the public domain as raw data is not good for clean athletes," he said.
Asked if there is an acceptance within the IAAF that doping was tolerable, Coe, 59, dismissed that accusation.
"If I go back to the immediate challenge we have there is Russia's ban and allegations made about some people in the IAAF. If you say IAAF has acceptance that doping is acceptable, I don't accept that."
