Track boss Diack pulls no punches, smacks IOC prexy
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In the oh-so-politic world of Olympic governance, rarely do you find a major sports leader with the courage to call out another major sports leader.
But that is what happened today, when international track federation President Lamine Diack of Senegal flat-out blasted International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge of Belgium.
Diack called out Rogge on his criticism of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt for celebrating the first of his three gold medals with a little crowd-delighting theatrics. Then he blasted Rogge’s apparent willingness to let London’s Olympic organizers renege on their promise to turn a scaled-down version of their 2012 Olympic Stadium into a medium-sized (about 20,000 seats) facility for track and field.
Diack is justifiably upset that Rogge is dissing his sport, which (despite its doping scandals) is the most important in the Olympics to much of the world, especially the developing world. Diack also took a swipe at swimming, with its ridiculous world-record rush as a consequence of high-tech suits, by noting that a world record in track and field ‘does still mean something.’’
‘I think this shows a lack of respect for my sport,’’ Diack said in a statement issued today.
As my blog entry during the Olympics on the Rogge-Bolt matter indicates, I am utterly in agreement with Diack that the IOC president’s criticism of Bolt was unjustified. I felt it smacked of old colonial attitudes toward ‘the natives.’
In his press release today, Diack said:
Like many people, I was surprised, and said so at the time, to hear Mr. Rogge imply that Usain Bolt was showboating and showing a lack of respect for his rivals after his phenomenal world record in the 100-meter final. We live in a time when Olympic sports are struggling to remain attractive to young people, when we all need to make sport exciting and relevant to them. Since we need to create HEROES that young people identify with, why criticize the behaviour of a young man who is INSTANTLY and completely appealing to young people? Usain’s three gold medals and world records, in a sport where a world record does still mean something, and his exuberance and uninhibited pleasure in victory, helped Usain transcend sport and become, during the Games, a truly global icon and a genuine role model for youngsters who may not find Olympic sport that exciting.
Diack also took issue with Rogge’s recent comments to the BBC about London’s Olympic Stadium, in which the IOC president said it was more important to avoid white elephants than to keep the track. Remarkably, Rogge cited Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic Stadium (from which the track was
removed to become Turner Field) as an example of such sensible after-use (which it is), because IOC officials often have blasted Atlanta for using about one-fourth of its operating revenue on what became the home of the Braves.
‘If the best solution is to transform the track into something else then we would be in favor of that,’’ Rogge told the BBC last week. ‘We had the same situation in Atlanta where the Olympic Stadium was changed into a baseball stadium, which kept an interest for sport. We don’t have problems with that. I don’t want to enter into specifics but we don’t want to leave white elephants.’’
‘A promise was made,’’ Diack said of London, ‘and I believe it is totally reasonable to expect that the most important sport of the summer Olympics, which is athletics, gets to live on after the three-week period of the Games is over. Mr. Rogge uses the example of Atlanta but for me, and the entire athletics family, the situation in Atlanta is a source of great disappointment.’
On the Atlanta analysis, I have to disagree with Diack. There was no need for Atlanta to keep the track, which would have left a stadium with dimensions unsuitable for baseball.
The difference is Atlanta never promised to have an enduring track facility, but, as Diack’s statement noted, that always was part of London’s Olympic proposal.
Diack’s statement said he is looking forward to a meeting with Rogge.
Oh, to be a fly on that wall.
-- Philip Hersh
Photo (top): International Amateur Athletics Federation President Lamine Diack of Senegal in a Feb. 23, 2003 file photo. Credit: Michel Spingler / Associated Press
Photo (inset): Usain Bolt celebrates his gold medal run even before crossing the finish line at the Beijing Games on Aug. 16. Credit: Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press / Associated Press
Photo (pop-up): London’s Olympic Delivery Authority on Friday released this photograph of construction at the 2012 Olympic Stadium bowl. Credit: Anthony Charlton / Olympic Development Authority
