03 December 2014

Seb Coe, Vice President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has today unveiled his vision for Athletics and the IAAF as part of his campaign to become President of the IAAF.

Lord Coe released his campaign Manifesto entitled ‘Growing Athletics in a New Age’, which outlines four key pillars underpinned by a comprehensive series of proposals to guide his vision for Athletics and the IAAF if he is successful in his bid to become IAAF President next year.

The chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games in 2012 will stand against two other former Olympic gold medallists, Ukrainian Sergey Bubka and Moroccan Nawal El Moutawakel. IAAF Member Federations will vote to decide the President of the IAAF in August 2015 at its Congress in Beijing

Coe said, “The vision and proposals that I am unveiling today are designed to increase the reach and appeal of Athletics in a world that is rapidly changing. I believe that it is essential that we open up a real debate and take a long hard look at the ‘product’ of Athletics if we aim to attract more young people into our sport and drive increased participation and income.  We must be ready to be creative, take action and embrace change.”

The two-time Olympic 1500m champion’s Manifesto encompasses four key areas including ‘embracing change’ by reforming the World Athletics calendar and potentially introducing new ‘street athletics’ events.

On the plans, Coe commented, “A harmonised calendar is the key to promotion, marketing, the athletes and Member Federation development and we must address this.

“We need to be more innovative in how we project and present our sport to the world, both in venue and on screen, give serious consideration to an ‘IAAF Street Athletics’ circuit to help reach new audiences, and create a new IAAF division that has the sole purpose of focussing on youth engagement, especially via social media.”

Other key pillars of Coes’ proposals include decentralisation and empowerment, maximising commercial growth and ensuring integrity and trust in the IAAF.

“I want the discussion on these issues to flourish in the weeks and months ahead and I am convinced that by working with this vision and in true partnership with Member Federations, our sport can embark on an exciting new era of global growth. Our aspiration has to be to see more young people become athletes, more people watching and consuming our sport and greater revenues flowing into the Athletics family.”    

For more information of Seb Coe’s IAAF presidential campaign Manifesto, visit www.sebcoe2015.org to read ‘Growing Athletics in a New Age’.