IAAF comments on WADA Independent Commission’s second report

Monaco, Jan 14, 2016: The IAAF thanks the WADA Independent Commission for all of the hard work that it has clearly put into its report.

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.

The IAAF acknowledges the Independent Commission’s positive comments about its handling of its blood testing programme in 2001-2012 and its assessment of the administration of the athlete biological passport programme.

Sebastian Coe commented: “I am extremely grateful to the WADA Independent Commission for its work and for the recommendations it has made. 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.” —- IAAF