Athletics has always \u2013 as a global sport, commercially and as topic in the medias \u2013 been the \u201ccrown jewel\u201d of the Olympic Games. Legends like Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Bob Beamon, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis, Sergie Bubka and Usain Bolt are not the only former Olympic gold medalists in athletics. They are also well-known world-class athletes for billions of people all over the globe. The special status of athletics among the Olympic sports is also striking in terms of the number of Olympic disciplines. There are no other sports that come close to athletics\u2019 48 medal sets to be awarded at the upcoming 2024 Olympics in Paris.<\/p>\n
However, it is by no means the beauty and elegance of a crown jewel that characterizes the international leadership of athletics \u2013 \u201cthe International Association of Athletics Federations\u201d (IAAF) \u2013 throughout the association\u2019s more than 100-year history. It is quit clear from the excellent book: \u201cPower and Politics in World Athletics. A Critical History\u201d (Routledge, London & New York, 2021), which was published a few months ago. The book is written by assistant professor and Ph.D. J\u00f6rg Krieger from the Section of Sports, Department of Public Health at Aarhus University on the basis of extensive and in-depth research over the past 3 years. Minutes of meetings, annual reports, personal letters, press releases and official speeches from 16 national and international archives \u2013 e.g. IAAF and IOC official archives \u2013 play along with the author\u2019s sharp pen as rarely seen.<\/p>\n
The book contains 13 chapters, which are chronologically closely linked with the only 6 IAAF presidents \u2013 Sigfrid Edstr\u00f6m (Sweden, 1912-1946), David Burghley (Great Britain, 1946-1976), Adriaan Paulen (Netherlands, 1976-1981), Primo Nebiolo (Italy, 1981-1999), Lamine Diack (Senegal, 1999-2015) and Sebastian Coe (Great Britain, 2015-) \u2013 who have held the post since the founding of the IAAF in 1912. Krieger emphasizes that he quickly learned in the work on the book that was a close connection between the IAAF\u2019s institutional development and the IAAF\u2019s leadership personified through the incumbent presidents. And that it is not possible to separate the personal views, attitudes and actions of IAAF Presidents from the institutional history of the IAAF.<\/p>\n
The book\u2019s research approach is both historical, comparative and critical. Krieger emphasizes as a historian that (also) the current structures, actions and behavior of sports organizations can advantageously be seen as reactions to or consequences of events that are far back in time. Likewise, Krieger manages to place the IAAF as an international sports organization in a cultural, political, economic, and sociological context in which concepts such as power, status, money, corruption, appointment, gender discrimination, and doping are recurring themes. The book is thus in no way a celebration script that pays homage to the IAAF\u2019s \u201cprinces\u201d and their \u201csubjects\u201d over time \u2013 quite the contrary.<\/p>\n
It is difficult to highlight individual chapters of the book. But personally, I find the chapters on Primo Nebiolo\u2019s transformation of the IAAF from \u201ca dilapidated pizzaria to a five-star luxury hotel,\u201d as expressed by his closest associates (pp. 160-209), particularly interesting. It is from the early 1980\u2019s that a mutual \u201ccommunity of interest\u201d emerges between international sports organizations such as the IAAF, global sponsors and multinational broadcasters such as NBC. A \u201ccommunity\u201d where cash flows subsequently accelerate sharply and where nepotism, corruption and tax evasion are a \u201cnatural\u201d part of the \u201cbrotherhood\u201d. Primo Nebioli, a trained lawyer and a successful businessman, was elected to the IAAF\u2019s top management in 1972. Nebioli quickly developed a close commercial relationship with the German Horst Dassler, whose father (Adolf Dassler) founded the sports brand \u201cAdidas\u201d. Horst Dassler was also a co-owner of ISL (International Sport & Leisure) \u2013 a Swiss marketing company with close connections to e.g. FIFA. For several years, Dassler worked purposefully to \u201creplace\u201d the reform-minded IAAF president Adriaan Paulen with Primo Nebiolo, which happened in 1981. The new \u201cbrotherhood\u201d between the IAAF, ISL and Adidas resulted in the first world championships in athletics, held in Helsinki in 1983. The World Athletics Championships, which were broadcast \u201clive\u201d worldwide, were now to \u201csupplement\u201d the IAAF\u2019s revenues from the IOC through more and larger sponsorship agreements and television contracts \u2013 and it succeeded fully. When Nebiolo took office as IAAF president, the annual turnover was 1 million dollars, while it was 100 million dollars two decades later.<\/p>\n
The book also describes Primo Nebioli\u2019s extremely close relationships with IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch (1980-2001) and FIFA President Joan Havelange (1974-1998), both of whom entered into giant television contracts for joy and benefit, both for their organizations and \u2026 themselves. Likewise, Nebioli\u2019s views on and actions in relation to the fight against doping \u2013 or lack of \u2013 are described on the basis of a number of national and international doping cases.<\/p>\n
It is hardly coincidental that \u201cthe International Association of Athletics Federations\u201d (IAAF) in 2019 changed its name to \u201cWorld Athletics\u201d, i.a. at the initiative of the new president Sebastian Coe \u2013 former Olympic gold medalist (1980 and 1984, Member of the British Parliament and CEO of the 2012 Olympic and 2012 Paralympics in London. It is a difficult task to change culture, structure and perception of democracy in an organization with more than 200 members from 5 continents \u2013 also for Sir Lord Sebastian Coe. J\u00f6rg Krieger is a \u201crestrained optimist\u201d in relation to Coe\u2019s abilities and will as a \u201creformer.\u201d In the book\u2019s perspective chapter, Krieger emphasizes that World Athletics integrity, autonomy, doping, gender discrimination and real influence for athletes on boards, committees and working groups. It is not enough to have an 800 meters or 1,500 meters, which were the English gentleman\u2019s favorite distances as a world-class athlete. The task is more like a marathon with both sharp turns, steep hills and strong headwinds. \u201cPower and Politics in World Athletics. A Critical History \u201ddeserves a large readership \u2013 both in Denmark and internationally \u2013 of athletes, coaches, journalists, leaders, politicians and everyone else who wants to\u201c learn from history \u201d. The book is a \u201ccrown jewel\u201d. And then it is definitely not every day that such is provided by a (Danish) sports researcher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Athletics has always \u2013 as a global sport, commercially and as topic in the medias \u2013 been the \u201ccrown jewel\u201d of the Olympic Games. Legends like Paavo Nurmi, Emil Zatopek, Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Bob Beamon, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis, Sergie Bubka and Usain Bolt are not the only former Olympic gold medalists in athletics. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n