The British Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, declared this Monday that the march will be on the program of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games and the next World Cups.reiterated his opposition to Russian and Belarusian athletes competing at the Paris 2024 Games under a neutral flag and, regarding the shoe war that broke out between several brands, said that his “responsibility is that there are control and limitation, especially around mechanical. advantage”.
Sebastian Coe, in a virtual conversation with five international media outlets, including EFE, reviewed various current issues related to athletics. One of those topics is the unknown depends on the future of walking, which at the Paris Olympic Games changes format when the 50 kilometer test disappearss, was initially replaced by a 35 km race and later by a mixed team marathon, something that did not go down well with the walkers. 20 kilometers remain.
“The discipline is in Los Angeles and also in Paris, but with adaptation, with relays. Some people from my federation were present recently and in that meeting, where Raúl Chapado (president of the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation) was also present, very good things were said about the relay event,” he said.
“The IOC is not interested in a racing war and that is the problem. I think that those countries that are interested in a war need to discuss it with their federations and possibly with the IOC members. As for World Athletics, we have the next two Olympic Games and the World Championships underway and relays are in demand. It’s an adaptation that needs to be made because of the circumstances of the Games,” he said.
The top leader of World Athletics reiterated his intention that at the Paris Olympic Games, in athletics, no Russians or Belarusians under a neutral flag, against the decision of the IOCwhich will accept athletes from the same country as neutrals.
“I respect the decision (of the other federations) but the most important thing is that people understand the autonomy and independence of the federations to make these judgments. “Federations have the power to determine the eligibility of athletes who can compete and we made a decision that we believe is for this sport and it is in its best interest,” he said.
“I understand that there are other federations that, for whatever reason, see it differently.. So there is no change in our view,” admits the former British athlete, who does not rule out a change of opinion in the future.
“I do not know. I don’t sit on any throne of truth and the world changes every five minutes. It can change. We have a working group monitoring the situation and we will have information on what circumstances need to be changed to eliminate any type of exception. “We are here, but in the interest of Paris, there will be no change,” he said.
The expectations of the Games, for Coe, involve trying to “fill the stadiums despite the fact that ticket prices are expensive.”
“I want the Games to be successful. As someone who has helped develop several, I know that this is a very demanding process and that it requires the joint work of many entities, including governments or the intelligence service ,” he says.
The recent marathon world record of the Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum and the Ethiopian Tigist Assefa has increased the ‘war’ between Nike and Adidas to find the most avant-garde footwear within the homologation that allows World Athletics to accredit the brands.
“We have an evaluation team for this issue. This is the first time that the sport has a group of people who evaluate shoes and we work with the shoe companies to strike a balance,” he confessed.
“We are not an organization that wants to stifle change. No society or civilization survives that kind of control but we are also a regulatory body and we have a responsibility with controls and limitations, especially around mechanical advantage because there are no companies investigating or building teams that make shoes that make you run less,” he said.
“We want to be aware of what is coming out of these developments. There will never be a perfect system, but we want to have at least certainty, about the depth of the footings, the compounds, the fiber, all of that,” he concluded.
Source: La Verdad
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