Lamine Diack Behind IAAF Corruption, Says WADA Commission Report

The commission was delivering the second part of its report, whose first instalment in November led to the banning of Russian Federation from athletics for state-sponsored doping.

Former IAAF president Lamine Diack was responsible for the corruption at the ruling athletics body and his successor Sebastian Coe must also have been aware of the schemes and doping practices in Russian Federation, according to a/ report carried out by for WADA chief Dick Pound.

“We had, in the course of our overseeing the investigation, discovered certain events that the conduct of the employed individuals within or associated with the IAAF went beyond sporting corruption and have been in criminal in nature”, McLaren said.

The corruption in the IAAF “emanated from the top” of the organization and the IAAF “showed no genuine appetite” to pursue suspicious test results, Dick Pound, a co-author of the reports and former head of the anti-doping agency, told reporters in Munich on January 14.

A chronology of major events around revelations about the systematic doping of Russian and other athletes, and corruption within the ruling body IAAF.

The WADA panel also said the IAAF executive board, which includes current IAAF president Sebastian Coe, must have known about the doping – and the nepotism that helped it flourish.

“As far as the ability of Lord Coe to remain at the head, it is a fabulous opportunity under strong leadership to move forward”.

“There is an enormous amount of reputational recovery, and I can think of no one better than Lord Coe to lead that”, he told a news conference in Munich.

It was “increasingly clear” that far more IAAF staff knew about the problems than has so far been acknowledged.

“I don’t think it was a huge surprise that we were concerned about Russia”, Coe said Thursday.

Pound, the former WADA president, has written two reports chronicling rampant corruption by the IAAF to cover up doping cases.

French authorities past year placed Diack under formal investigation on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.

VTB said in November its sponsorship deal with the IAAF was ending, shortly after a previous WADA report detailed doping in Russian track and field.

IAAF representatives are now in Russia to review progress on reforms made by the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).

“You can’t possibility be code compliant if your sport leaders extort athletes to cover up doping that allows dirty athletes to compete in the 2012 Olympics”, said Tygart. “It can not be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on its own”.

The report described negotiations over the fate of a group of Russian athletes accused of doping in the run up to IAAF championships held in Moscow in 2013. “And, as they say, experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want”.

Balakhnichev, who refused to make an official comment when contacted by AFP on Thursday, was slapped with a lifetime ban by the IAAF ethics commission last week for bribes taken to cover up doping by Russian athletes.

December 11 – Papa Massata Diack, son of then athletics governing body IAAF president Lamine Diack, leaves his marketing consultancy position with the IAAF and Valentin Balakhnichev resigns as IAAF treasurer.

Diack handpicked a lawyer to handle Russian doping cases even though he had little experience with anti-doping measures, the report added.

The circle included his sons, Papa Masada Diack and Khalil Diack, and his legal counsel Habib Cisse. The former London 2012 chairman and double Olympic gold medallist was also forced to give up his ambassadorial role at Nike after he admitted allegations of a conflict of interest had become an unwanted distraction.

Pound’s report did, however, call for a “forensic examination” of the processes behind the awarding of the 2021 world athletics championships to the American town of Eugene, Oregon, closely linked to sportswear manufacturer Nike.