World Athletics

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World Athletics
Founded July 17, 1912
Place of foundation Stockholm , SwedenSwedenSweden 
Chairman United KingdomUnited Kingdom Sebastian Coe
Members 214 member associations
Association headquarters MonacoMonaco Monaco
Homepage www.worldathletics.org

World Athletics is the umbrella organization for all national sports associations for athletics . It was founded in 1912 at its congress in Sweden's capital Stockholm by delegates from 17 countries as the International Amateur Athletics Federation and, after deleting the term amateur, from 2001 to 2019 it was called the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF, German  International Association of Athletics Federations , for short : World Athletics Federation ). The seat was initially in Stockholm, as the office should be close to the President. In 1946 he was transferred to London . Since October 1993 the seat is in Monaco . World Athletics currently has 214 member associations. The current president is the Briton Sebastian Coe .

tasks

The area of ​​responsibility includes the standardization of timekeeping methods and of records. World Athletics also hosts numerous international athletics competitions, including the World Athletics Championships since 1983 . In addition, the association maintains the lists of official world records . In 1982 the then International Amateur Athletics Federation opened its statutes to allow athletes to receive allowances for their participation in international competitions. Consequently, at a congress in 2001, the association deleted the term amateur from its name and renamed itself the International Association of Athletics Federations . After the 2019 World Championships, which ended on October 6, the IAAF was renamed World Athletics and received a new logo.

In 2012 - the year of the association's 100th anniversary - an IAAF Hall of Fame was established. Athletes who are no longer active and who have distinguished themselves through special achievements in their careers are included in these. The admission is considered the highest award of the International Athletics Federation.

Events

The association organizes the following events:

President

No. Surname country Term of office
1 Sigfrid Edström SwedenSweden Sweden 1912-1946
2 Lord Burghley United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom 1946-1976
3 Adriaan Paulen NetherlandsNetherlands Netherlands 1976-1981
4th Primo Nebiolo ItalyItaly Italy 1981-1999
5 Lamine Diack SenegalSenegal Senegal 1999-2015
6th Sebastian Coe United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom since 2015

Continental Associations

The six World Athletics Continental Federations

criticism

Dealing with doping

The association is said to have known about hundreds of athletes with abnormal blood samples and still not drawn any conclusions from them. In the case of this failure of the blood doping controls by the then IAAF, athletes from Russia and in particular athletes from Kenya are under suspicion.

The publication of a study by the University of Tübingen, in which the researchers concluded from surveys that about a third of the 1,800 athletes had violated anti-doping rules in the twelve months before the competitions, was prevented by the IAAF, according to the researchers.

In November 2015, it became known that former IAAF President Diack and his lawyer would be charged in Paris. They are said to have installed a system of blackmail in which they made positive doping results disappear against payment. In the same month, the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) was temporarily suspended by the IAAF Council. The association is therefore not allowed to send athletes to international competitions until further notice and there is a threat of Russian athletes being excluded from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro . In mid-June 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) presented a report in which it stated that athletes and secret service employees in Russia had massively obstructed doping controls.

On June 17, 2016, the Council extended Russia's ban indefinitely. According to WADA findings, a total of 736 planned doping tests were not carried out between February and May of this year for various reasons. In addition, there are blatant omissions on the part of many athletes when giving their whereabouts. Officially, the International Olympic Committee has to decide on the exclusion of Russian athletes from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Since its president Thomas Bach had already announced in advance that he would respect the decision of the IAAF, this is a matter of form. The Russian Federation still has the opportunity to appeal against the IAAF's decision to the International Court of Justice for Sports (CAS). The pole vaulter Jelena Isinbayeva has announced that she will personally file a lawsuit against a possible suspension. Russian activists who are not connected to the country’s official system should be given the opportunity to start under a neutral flag. This also applies to athletes who have made a contribution to uncovering doping structures, such as the runner Julija Stepanova . The necessary amendment to the statutes has already been passed by the IAAF. On July 21, 2016, the CAS dismissed a lawsuit by 68 Russian athletes against the ban, so the participation of the country's athletes in the 2016 Olympic Games is unlikely, apart from individual admissions, and exclusion of the entire Russian team is possible.

Corruption and nepotism

The second part of the Wada investigation report was published in mid-January 2016. His main statements: Lamine Diack is primarily responsible for corruption in the then IAAF; Diack is said to have led a group outside of the IAAF that blackmailed doping offenders; Diacks ​​approval of fraud and extortion within the IAAF; insufficient commitment of the IAAF against corruption in the association; persistent lack of a functioning governance structure to take appropriate action against corruption; unquestionable complicity of the IAAF Council in suspicious transactions, employment of family members as highly paid consultants. Quote from chief investigator Richard Pound: "You will see how some bastards have done it."

Web links

Commons : International Association of Athletics Federations  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Arnd Krüger : Forgotten Decisions: The IOC on the Eve of World War I. (PDF file) Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies 6 (1997), pp. 85-98
  2. ^ IAAF unveils new name and logo. In: iaaf.org. June 9, 2019, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  3. ^ IAAF President's Message ( Memento of August 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at iaaf.org (PDF file, English; accessed on September 22, 2012)
  4. Christin Hönicke, Stephan Haselberger: Doping in athletics - How hundreds of suspicious blood tests could be kept secret . In: Der Tagesspiegel . 3rd August 2015.
  5. Peter Ahrens: Top performance at the World Cup: Kenya's athletes under suspicion . In: Spiegel Online . 29th August 2015.
  6. ULZ / sid / Reuters: dispute over highly explosive doping study . In: Der Spiegel . August 16, 2015.
  7. Diack is charged with corruption , Spiegel Online from November 4, 2015, accessed on November 10, 2015.
  8. Peter Ahrens: Very deep in the swamp . In: Spiegel Online . November 9, 2015, accessed November 10, 2015.
  9. dpa / saw: Doping scandal: Russia's athletics association suspended . In: The time . November 14, 2015, accessed November 14, 2015.
  10. mka / dpa: Wada report: Russia is said to have hindered doping controls . In: Spiegel Online . June 15, 2016, accessed June 17, 2016.
  11. ^ Doping affair: World Federation bans Russian athletes from the Olympic Games. Spiegel Online, June 17, 2016, accessed on the same day
  12. Benjamin Knaack: Doping scandal: Imagine it's the Olympics - and Russia is not running. Spiegel Online, June 17, 2016, accessed on the same day
  13. Jens Weinreich : IAAF decision: A holiday for sport. Spiegel Online, June 17, 2016, accessed on the same day
  14. Cas judgment: Russian athletes are not allowed to Rio. Spiegel Online, July 21, 2016, accessed on the same day
  15. Report from anti-doping fighters: Corruption is now officially part of athletics. In: Spiegel online , January 14, 2016.
  16. WADA report complete failure of the IAAF in the fight against doping . In: Deutschlandfunk .