IAAF Accept the “Extreme Gravity” of Second WADA Report

International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) says it “fully acknowledges and accepts the extreme gravity” of the findings by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Independent Commission.

The second part of the report was presented at a news conference in Munich on Thursday which accused the IAAF council of not being “unaware of the extent of doping in athletics”.

The report plunged the IAAF into further crisis and placed even more pressure on current president Seb Coe. 

A statement released by the IAAF said: “The IAAF fully acknowledges and accepts the extreme gravity of the Commission’s findings. The weakness of IAAF’s governance which has been exposed allowed individuals at the head of the previous regime at the IAAF to delay the following of normal procedures in certain doping cases.

“Each and every one of the measures that the Commission has recommended to strengthen IAAF governance has been fully noted. The IAAF will incorporate those recommendations into the root and branch governance review which was begun by IAAF President Sebastian Coe immediately he came into office.”

Seb Coe says he is aware that the IAAF has a huge task on its hands to restore the reputation of athletics and the confidence of the public but is willing to take on the task.

“I am extremely grateful to the WADA Independent Commission for its work and for the recommendations it has made,” said Coe.

“The corruption that it has revealed is totally abhorrent, and a gross betrayal of trust by those involved. Even though each of the impacted doping cases was eventually resolved with lengthy bans for the athletes involved, I recognise that the IAAF still has an enormous task ahead of it to restore public confidence.

“We cannot change the past, but I am determined that we will learn from it and will not repeat its mistakes. Some of the measures recommended by the Independent Commission already feature in the governance reform programme that I announced on 5 January but we will now urgently consider all of the new recommendations and will incorporate them quickly into that reform programme.”

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