(ATR) Sebastian Coe will be one of the key figures involved in the restoration of Russia to good standing in world sport.
The president of the International Association of Athletics Federations is number 18 in the 2018 edition of the Around the Rings Golden 25. Published since 1997, the Golden 25 is an annual review of people, events and issues expected to influence the Olympic Movement in the year ahead.
Coe is on the frontline trying to extricate the sport from the malaise of doping that is casting a shadow over the integrity of results from the Olympics and IAAF events.
The IAAF was the only international federation to ban Russian athletes from the 2016 Olympics. Suspended over allegations of state sponsored doping and corruption, the Russian athletics federation must win Coe’s favor before it can be reinstated. Coe has recently signaled that progress is being made in Russia, but ending the ban is still months away.
Coe and the IAAF also are working to modernize athletics with the aim of attracting new participants and spectators. Reworking the format of the Diamond League series is one example .
Overdue for Coe is membership on the IOC. For decades the IAAF president has held a seat on the IOC, but it’s been open ever since Coe’s disgraced predecessor Lamine Diack retired from the IOC in 2013. Coe became IAAF president in 2015.
Besides the prestige of leading the IAAF, Coe brings the experience of his leadership of London 2012 from bid to organizing committee. Coe was the first Summer Olympic gold medalist to run an organizing committee. Now 61, Coe could serve for nine years before hitting the IOC age limit of 70.
Nike, which employed Coe as a consultant for a number of years, is close to completing a building at its Oregon campus in 2018 that will named for him.
2017 ranking: #18
Reported by Ed Hula.
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