IAAF approves sweeping new reforms to change operations

Athletics world governing body, the IAAF has voted through a reform package that will change how the scandal-hit organization operates.

The ‘Time for Change’ proposal which is at the heart of IAAF president Sebastian Coe’s agenda for moving the sport forward, was overwhelmingly passed at a congress in Monaco on Saturday.

“This is a good and historic day for our sport,” IAAF president Sebastian Coe told reporters after the Congress.

The reforms place more governance power in the hands of the IAAF Executive Board.

It also aims to give a greater voice to athletes while instituting integrity and disciplinary functions.

“I am incredibly proud of the work the team has done. I think it is a ringing endorsement of our commitment to do things differently,” Coe said of the outcome of the congress.

“This work started effectively shortly after Christmas. It has been painstaking, it has been detailed, it has involved teams flying around the world consistently for the last six or seven months. It has meant six visits to area associations, the continents, all within the last month or so, and it has also meant detailed consultation,” the IAAF president explained to the media.

But after all that work, “We now have structures, we now have frameworks and foundations that will create a safety net and that safety net has also been responsive to cultural shifts and cultural changes, but it is a good day and there is now a whole heap of new work to do to make sure that we drive on to a far better future”.

The IAAF according to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) had been embedded in corruption under its former president Lamine Diack, whom WADA accused of running a click to cover up organized doping and blackmailed athletes.