Into the breach comes Sebastian Coe

Just announced, Sebastian Coe will become the President of the IAAF, the ruling body for Track and Field athletes. His stated goal is to clean up our sport. I sincerely hope he is successful.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/sports/international/hard-climb-awaits-sebastian-coe-as-new-president-of-iaaf.html

My sport has always been running. Track, cross-country and more recently, trail running have been my passion since I was in the 5th grade. My first heroes were in fact runners-Jim Ryun-sub 4:00 miler in HIGH SCHOOL, Olympian and Congressman. I also admired and occasional communicate with Gerry Lindgren, the eccentric, but true "phenom" who beat the Russians as a high schooler and is one of the few Americans who beat Steve Prefontaine head to head. None of the above were ever accused of taking performance enhancing drugs.

As I got older and more educated, some would say more cynical, I was curious about the mysterious Lasse Viren and  Waldimar Cierpinski, winners of Olympic Gold medals and little else. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, documents discovered prove without a doubt that Cierpienski was using steroids, cheating Frank Shorter out of getting a 2nd Gold medal in the marathon, something he is still very bitter about.

Other scandals followed: Ben Johnson in the 1988 Games; Regina Jacobs after the 1996 Games; Marion Jones in the 2000 Games and the entire Chinese Distance Running team withdrawing from the 2000 Games for fear of being found to be EPO users. Yes, there are many others and its been a sad history of doping.

The result? Television rarely shows track and field in non-Olympic years for two reasons. First, its just not a popular sport for non-runners. The average American coach potato can't relate at all. Second, the networks and knowledgable viewers can't be sure that the winner of today's event won't be found to be a user a few weeks or months later.

Sebastian Coes mission is clear. Change the image of track from being a dirty sport to one where people can trust the results. How the 1980 Olympian does that will be as interesting as watching a duel between Jim Ryun and Marty Liquori was in the early 70's. Stay tuned track fans!