Beijing Olympics Open Door to New Image for Athletics

(ATR) As the road to Beijing brings them closer to the Olympics, officials and competitors involved with the premier event of the Games, athletics, hope these Olympics provide some distance from the doping scandals of the past decade.

The United States, the dominant team in athletics, concludes its Olympic Trials this weekend while one of its former superstars, Marion Jones, is in prison. Justin Gatlin, the 2004 gold medalist in the 100 meters, is serving a four-year ban for steroids. And Dwain Chambers of Great Britain is appealing his lifetime ban resulting from a positive test in 2003.

“I really believe that the new generation, in America in particular, is paying for this,” IAAF spokesman Nick Davies tells Around the Rings. “Their current credibility is questioned because of something that other people did in the past.”

A positive doping test next month would be a major setback for the sport.

Davies said the IAAF has devoted increased resources to the anti-doping fight, spending about $3 million a year and with 11 full time staff members. “No sport can say they are doing more than the IAAF in this regard,” he said.

Bill Roe, interim CEO of USA Track and Field tells Around the Rings that the doping scandals have affected the view of the average sports fan.

“The first thing I heard when (Jamaican sprinter) Usain Bolt ran in New York (the world record in the 100 meters) was, ‘Boy, I hope he doesn’t test positive for something,” Roe said.

He said the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency is “vastly underfunded.” However, he said the agency has made a good move in placing more emphasis on out-of-competition tests. “Technically, you only catch stupid people when you test in competition,” he said, “or people who don't know anything about testing, a high school kid on asthma medication.”

Roe said athletes should be confident that the testing is effective.

“They better be because some big names have gone down,” he said. “They have to understand we haven’t spared anybody.”

But when will the public regain their faith? “It's going to be some years down the road,” Roe said.

Global Reach and Development

The IAAF recently increased its membership to 213 federations. Although the U.S. is dominating at a pre-Soviet level -- with 25 medals in Athens in 2004 and 26 in Osaka in 2007-- new countries are making inroads in the rankings -- and possibly the medals in Beijing.

These include long jumper Irving Saladino of Panama, high jumper Blanka Vlasic of Croatia, discus thrower Gerd Kanter of Estonia and high jumper Kabelo Kgosiemang from Botswana.

Athletes from more than 40 countries have won medals at international events, with finalists coming from more than 60 nations.

“We have an aggressive development program which invests more than $14 million dollars each year to develop and promote athletics at all levels around the world,” Davies said, “and we also have new projects in terms of marketing - particularly looking at new competition formats in order to make the sport as relevant as possible in a fast changing world.”

The key, he said, is exposing young people to athletics in school.

“We have established a specific Schools and Youth Commission and created a "Kids Athletics" grass roots program which introduces youngsters to our sport in a fun and modern way,” Davies said. The number one priority of IAAF President Lamine Diack is to transform our sport and making it an integral part of the lives of young people, especially in the schools.”

Countries that signed up for this plan include China and Morocco.

Sponsorship Shift East

The majority of sponsorship used to come from Europe, but now the bulk of the money comes from Asia. Davies said that is partly due to hurdler Liu Xiang, China’s most famous and successful sportsman.

“He has single handedly transformed the image of our sport in China,” he said. “We have also traditionally had great support from Japan - in commercial terms, and Japan is a country of long and lasting athletics traditions.”

With the 2011 World Championships set for Daegu, Korea, and the 2010 World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, Davies said, “we expect Asia to become the next great athletics continent as they have the demographics and the economic potential.”

In addition, the IAAF’s marketing company, Dentsu, is based in Japan.

The IAAF said the money raised from sponsorship revenue since 2000 is $145,000,000

TV Coverage

About 180 territories received coverage of the Osaka World Championships, with more than 85 percent terrestrial coverage. Davies said international TV sales of the 2008 season for the ÅF Golden League and Athletix, the official IAAF TV series, have also reached new records. “In 2008, the ÅF Golden League will be seen in 150 territories worldwide with TV revenues continuing on their upward trend,” he said.

There is also increased coverage in two key strategic regions, the U.S. and Middle East. According to the IAAF, the amount of revenue raised from broadcasting deals since 1999 is $380,000,000. With major meets now web-streamed live, USATF spokeswoman Jill Geer said, “a

hard-core track fan no longer has to wait for a tape-delayed broadcast… They can see every minute of every meet.”

But she said track officials have to continue to make broadcast meets more attractive. Meets have already become streamlined to make them more TV-friendly and fit into a three-hour package.

“Two million hard core track fans can smell track a mile way,” she said. “We have to reach out to those sports fans who are tangentally interested.”

Roe has talked with American sponsors about a weekly television presence in the U.S. which would cover all aspects of the sport, including road racing and cross country. He doesn’t know which network would air it.

“It’s a $5-7 million proposition and also require USA Track and Field have a separate director for television,” he said. “We would have to devote resources to making sure it comes off.”

Beijing Games in a Venue to Remember

Athletics thrives on rivalries and two of the most anticipated showdowns will come at the Beijing Olympics in the shortest events: the men’s 100 meters and the men’s 110 meter hurdles. American Tyson Gay is expected to battle Jamaica’s Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt in the 100. The 110-meter hurdles featuress China’s Liu Xiang, Dayron Robles of Cuba and U.S. high hurdlers who could include Terrence Trammell and Allen Johnson.

They will compete in the 91,000 seat National Stadium, the so-called Bird’s Nest where sellouts are expected.

“In architectural terms, the Birds Nest stadium is a breathtaking, iconic building but it is also perfect under its skin in terms of the working facilities,” Davies said. “It is a just an amazing venue for athletics.”

“The great thing about the Olympics is that you get sell-outs even for morning sessions when there are no finals which is very motivating for the athletes,” Davies said.

Edited by Ed Hula

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