With his federation embattled by widespread doping allegations that could lead to a reshuffle of Olympic and world championship podiums for more than a decade, IAAF president lamine Diack (in pic) defended his organization’s anti-doping record and dismissed the accusations as a “joke” on Monday.
Diack, who will be stepping down later this month after 15 years at the helm of the International Association of Athletics Federations, also questioned the timing of the reports, which came out three weeks before the track and field world championships in Beijing, which run from August 22-30.
“They are playing with the idea of a redistribution of medals,” Diack said at the International Olympic Committee meeting in Kuala lumpur. “It’s possible, if we prove with the new techniques at our disposal that someone doped. Otherwise, it’s a joke. Just three weeks before the world championships, there is something behind.”
“There is a film and a newspaper who are asking questions,” said Diack. “We are going to answer them all. But it’s not (just) because someone has a suspicious profile once that he was doped. When people say that there are medals to be redistributed from 2001 to 2012, it’s just a farce.”
Diack did not specify which countries could be interested in a redistribution of medals.
His comments appeared to leave former WADA president Dick Pound perplexed. “I’m not sure what he meant,” said Pound, who is heading a WADA commission investigating earlier allegations of widespread doping and cover-ups in Russia, particularly in track and field.