Zürcher Nachrichten - It will be 'big and punchy': Athletics chief Coe looks to future

EUR -
AED 4.312395
AFN 81.599816
ALL 97.521009
AMD 451.037192
ANG 2.101446
AOA 1076.777926
ARS 1481.732606
AUD 1.803585
AWG 2.113631
AZN 1.949333
BAM 1.958543
BBD 2.371221
BDT 143.631157
BGN 1.959489
BHD 0.4427
BIF 3453.438467
BMD 1.17424
BND 1.502104
BOB 8.115366
BRL 6.446217
BSD 1.174445
BTN 100.819198
BWP 15.668677
BYN 3.843383
BYR 23015.094849
BZD 2.359004
CAD 1.604539
CDF 3387.680896
CHF 0.935847
CLF 0.028808
CLP 1105.475771
CNY 8.425052
CNH 8.424857
COP 4734.651222
CRC 593.130685
CUC 1.17424
CUP 31.117348
CVE 110.733844
CZK 24.637895
DJF 208.68582
DKK 7.460613
DOP 70.513586
DZD 152.202452
EGP 58.321778
ERN 17.613593
ETB 159.432402
FJD 2.639984
FKP 0.860313
GBP 0.861457
GEL 3.182487
GGP 0.860313
GHS 12.208472
GIP 0.860313
GMD 83.957729
GNF 10164.216748
GTQ 9.027643
GYD 245.704111
HKD 9.217598
HNL 30.823762
HRK 7.537678
HTG 153.635167
HUF 399.898539
IDR 19176.270968
ILS 3.934537
IMP 0.860313
INR 100.858311
IQD 1538.253788
IRR 49464.840412
ISK 142.59964
JEP 0.860313
JMD 187.442515
JOD 0.83257
JPY 171.335054
KES 152.05814
KGS 102.687161
KHR 4721.61692
KMF 493.753224
KPW 1056.81516
KRW 1610.775023
KWD 0.358472
KYD 0.978654
KZT 610.074415
LAK 25304.861651
LBP 105211.862666
LKR 353.344863
LRD 235.432722
LSL 20.972285
LTL 3.467224
LVL 0.710286
LYD 6.32895
MAD 10.586356
MDL 19.81241
MGA 5201.881765
MKD 61.55066
MMK 2465.364275
MNT 4208.005138
MOP 9.495999
MRU 46.623157
MUR 52.81687
MVR 18.083818
MWK 2039.061899
MXN 21.888054
MYR 4.975837
MZN 75.103972
NAD 20.971667
NGN 1802.586769
NIO 43.153367
NOK 11.86596
NPR 161.310917
NZD 1.952981
OMR 0.451458
PAB 1.174445
PEN 4.186751
PGK 4.886891
PHP 66.43574
PKR 333.777244
PLN 4.248839
PYG 9359.107515
QAR 4.274935
RON 5.061557
RSD 117.133876
RUB 92.408731
RWF 1683.85949
SAR 4.40388
SBD 9.789546
SCR 16.570562
SDG 705.128395
SEK 11.162268
SGD 1.50133
SHP 0.922768
SLE 26.42648
SLL 24623.220193
SOS 671.07786
SRD 43.743362
STD 24304.387555
SVC 10.276392
SYP 15267.376127
SZL 20.972083
THB 38.303106
TJS 11.303631
TMT 4.121581
TND 3.402358
TOP 2.750191
TRY 46.976827
TTD 7.960148
TWD 34.148998
TZS 3100.217807
UAH 49.135314
UGX 4212.900205
USD 1.17424
UYU 47.136014
UZS 14906.971119
VES 130.672017
VND 30700.492593
VUV 139.06333
WST 3.043639
XAF 656.865759
XAG 0.031912
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.173441
XDR 0.813862
XOF 654.051311
XPF 119.331742
YER 284.342233
ZAR 20.957545
ZMK 10569.566402
ZMW 28.449359
ZWL 378.104651
  • CMSC

    0.0900

    22.314

    +0.4%

  • CMSD

    0.0250

    22.285

    +0.11%

  • RBGPF

    0.0000

    69.04

    0%

  • SCS

    0.0400

    10.74

    +0.37%

  • RELX

    0.0300

    53

    +0.06%

  • RIO

    -0.1400

    59.33

    -0.24%

  • GSK

    0.1300

    41.45

    +0.31%

  • NGG

    0.2700

    71.48

    +0.38%

  • BP

    0.1750

    30.4

    +0.58%

  • BTI

    0.7150

    48.215

    +1.48%

  • BCC

    0.7900

    91.02

    +0.87%

  • JRI

    0.0200

    13.13

    +0.15%

  • VOD

    0.0100

    9.85

    +0.1%

  • BCE

    -0.0600

    22.445

    -0.27%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    12

    +0.83%

  • AZN

    -0.1200

    73.71

    -0.16%

It will be 'big and punchy': Athletics chief Coe looks to future
It will be 'big and punchy': Athletics chief Coe looks to future / Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis - AFP

It will be 'big and punchy': Athletics chief Coe looks to future

Sebastian Coe has two years left as World Athletics president and it promises to be lively as he says next year's inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Team Championship will remind the world the sport is "big and punchy and still there."

Text size:

The 68-year-old Englishman has shrugged off the disappointment of finishing third in the International Olympic Committee presidential election in March, telling AFP he is "not one for rear view mirrors."

"Concede and move on," he adds.

Move on he certainly has.

The old brio, dynamism and charm are all to the fore as he addresses the issues that will dominate the final leg of a 12-year tenure that -- like his Olympic gold medal-winning track career -- has never been dull.

The World Championships arrive in September in Tokyo -- "a massive moment", Coe says, not least because there will be spectators unlike at the Covid-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in the same stadium.

"Everybody gets the emotional impact" of that, he added.

Then attention switches to the World Athletics Ultimate Team Championship, slated for September 11-13, 2026, in Budapest -- the city which hosted the 2023 world championships.

Each session will last three hours and athletes will represent both themselves and their national teams, wearing national kit.

"Next year is unashamedly aimed at TV," Coe told AFP in an interview following Friday's Paris Diamond League meet.

"It's unashamedly aimed at unlocking new audiences.

"So we go from '24 where we have a big global audience in the Olympic Games to '25 which are world championships.

"2026 now gives us, in September, an opportunity for the world to remember we're big and punchy and still there."

Another former track great, Michael Johnson, had wanted to make just such an impact with his Grand Slam series this year.

However, it failed to sparkle and the fourth and final stop in Los Angeles was cancelled.

Coe says just as World Athletics learn from their events, so will Grand Slam.

"We want to be enablers. I'm not the 'computer says no' federation," said Coe.

"We want to encourage fresh thinking and fresh income into this sport.

"I've been involved in startups, it's complicated. But execution is everything."

- Impossible to be neutral -

Coe says those who suffer from any fallout are the athletes, who he has striven to enrich as much as possible.

To that end the World Athletics Ultimate Team Championship will boast a record-setting prize pot of $10 million (9.6 million euros) -- "everybody will pick up something."

World Athletics' decision to sanction awarding prize money to Olympic gold medallists in Paris last year did not win Coe many friends in the International Olympic Committee hierarchy or among the federation chiefs of other sports.

However, he remains undeterred.

"Prize money and improving the lot of the athletes in the next few years is really, really important," said Coe.

"Although prize money wasn't flavour of the month in Lausanne (where the IOC is based), we are going to drive ahead on that."

Coe says he has always battled for athletes' financial well-being. He and former IOC president Thomas Bach -- who handed over power to Kirsty Coventry on Monday -- co-wrote a speech he delivered to the 1981 IOC Congress raising the topic.

Coe says the idea for the Paris prize money came to him on a long-haul flight to New York in February 2024, and he rang Abby Hoffmann, a WA Council member, from a book shop asking her opinion about his "crazy idea."

"She replied I think you should take more long-haul flights, and that was how it came about."

Coe says it is only fair when one considers the wealth of the IOC.

"They're competing in a movement that has billions of dollars," said Coe.

"It's a bit like Taylor Swift being the only person not being paid at the concert, but the volunteers and the janitors and the concessions and everybody else is doing OK out of it."

Coe and WA's decision to impose a blanket ban on Russian athletes over the invasion of Ukraine was another area where he and Bach disagreed.

That ban remains in place, although Coe concedes if a peace agreement is reached then it is not for sport to stand in the way of the Russians' return.

The conflict, though, has left its mark on Coe after a visit he paid to Ukraine.

"When you get to Kyiv (train station), there's probably 50 or 60 ambulances and hearses waiting on the platform.

"Families waiting for the news. They have two carriages, mobile operating theatres and intensive care units, where amputations are taking place as the train's coming back.

"So, sorry, it's not something I could ever really be neutral about."

B.Brunner--NZN