The UK sportswriters aren’t buying WADA dope fighter Dick Pound’s old boy argument that Seb Coe should lead the IAAF. Coe looked the other way at years of corruption by Lamine Diack and his friends, including millions in bribes from the Russians to hide drug tests. How much did they get for IAAF championships? The French are still investigating, but Coe himself was getting $150K a year from Nike. The Guardian’s Marina Hyde is particularly bemused.
As for which organization is more credible, there’s no comparison. The IAAF is a corrupt criminal enterprise, which fled from London to Monaco to avoid British law and taxation. Their reporting of corporate finances and executive compensation is minimal to non-existent. They take bribes from Vladimir Putin to cover up doping, they extort hush money from athletes, and they use political pressure to obtain government subsidies to pad their own pockets. If the IAAF comes to Eugene in 2021 they will expect UO to provide free conference space, offices, and thousands of dorm rooms, all at no charge. UO will have to cover the salaries of the UO staff helping out with the meet, and pay Vin Lananna about $3M for organizing it all. Lananna’s Track Town non-profit also wants UO to cancel a month of summer classes.
Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment, in comparison, is a publicly traded corporation with headquarters in the U.S. It is subject to U.S. law and regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, including regular audits and public financial statements. The earnings of its executives are posted on the web every quarter. The WWE has an aggressive substance abuse and drug testing policy, and there is no suggestion that WWE executives have extorted bribes from athletes to hide positive drug tests. Similar to other sporting insitutions, the WWE are strict on drug abuse within the sport, with some wrestlers being tested frequently using home drug tests to see if they are clean. The WWE not only funds its championships without government subsidies, it pays taxes. When the WWE comes to Knight Arena on Feb 26, they don’t expect UO to subsidize them, or pay off their executives. Instead they will pay UO for the use of the arena, helping pay off the $235M in state bonds sold to build it:
And while the IAAF’s reputation continues to plunge, the WWE’s stock price is up about 60% over the past year:
Short answer – Yes. Pro Wrestling doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t. IAAF wishes it had WWE’s credibility.
Carl Lewis ran dirty all through his career, he was caught twice by US testing authorities prior to his Olympic race with Ben Johnson. Admitted to it during the documentary, “Bigger, Stronger, Faster.” What does it say that Ben was pilloried, and Carl was allowed to continue his career, dirty or not?