
(ATR) Sylvia Barlag is defending IAAF president Seb Coe’s efforts to reform the athletics federation currently inundated with issues involving doping and governance.
In comments to the Times of London, WADA Independent Commission chairman Richard Pound says Coe and his colleagues should have dealt with these issues "a long time ago".
Council member Berlag says Coe has confronted the problems facing the IAAF.
"Seb championed the establishment of the Ethics Commission and Code on the IAAF Council," says Barlag, from the Netherlands.
"I’d been on the council for two years and especially considering he’d come straight off leading the London Olympics he impressively drove the process forward with us."
However, Pound believes Coe and vice president Sergey Bubka could have done more to initiate change while serving under former president Lamine Diack who is currently in the custody of French authorities.
"Coe and Bubka were there," Pound told the Times.
"They had an opportunity a long time ago to address issues of governance, and you saw from the International Olympic Committee what happens if you don't do that," he says, referring to the Salt Lake City vote-buying scandal.
In December, Coe told British Parliament that his role as vice president was minimal due to his role organizing the London 2012 Games.
"I was aware we had a [doping] problem, but the specific numbers, I did not," Coe told Parliament. Pound says this is no excuse.
"It's easy enough if you want to get a governance review. They had a (19th-century) constitution in a 21st-century organization," he argues.
Around the Rings understands that there is some confusion among IAAF officials about why Pound would offer incendiary remarks about Coe as the IAAF and WADA are both working together to protect clean sport.
"Without the Independent Commission the IAAF would not have had the mechanisms in place to investigate these matters which resulted in the sanctions which were delivered yesterday," says Barlag, referencing the three lifetime bans handed out by the IAAF on Thursday.
Pound is set to release the second part of the Independent Commission report next Thursday, focusing more on the IAAF officials involved in the doping cover-ups as opposed to the violations of the All-Russian Athletics Federation exposed in part one.
Written by KevinNutley
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribersonly.
Últimas Noticias
Utah’s Olympic venues an integral part of the equation as Salt Lake City seeks a Winter Games encore
Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation chief of sport development Luke Bodensteiner says there is a “real urgency to make this happen in 2030”. He discusses the mission of the non-profit organization, the legacy from the 2002 Winter Games and future ambitions.

IOC president tells Olympic Movement “we will again have safe and secure Olympic Games” in Beijing
Thomas Bach, in an open letter on Friday, also thanked stakeholders for their “unprecedented” efforts to make Tokyo 2020 a success despite the pandemic.

Boxing’s place in the Olympics remains in peril as IOC still unhappy with the state of AIBA’s reform efforts
The IOC says issues concerning governance, finance, and refereeing and judging must be sorted out to its satisfaction. AIBA says it’s confident that will happen and the federation will be reinstated.

IOC president details Olympic community efforts to get Afghans out of danger after Taliban return to power
Thomas Bach says the Afghanistan NOC remains under IOC recognition, noting that the current leadership was democratically elected in 2019. But he says the IOC will be monitoring what happens in the future. The story had been revealed on August 31 in an article by Miguel Hernandez in Around the Rings

North Korea suspended by IOC for failing to participate in Tokyo though its athletes could still take part in Beijing 2022
Playbooks for Beijing 2022 will ”most likely” be released in October, according to IOC President Thomas Bach.
