It is, according to Lord Coe, a scandal every bit as damaging to athletics as the stain left by Ben Johnson during the Seoul Olympics. But while a weather bomb of corruption, malpractice and bribery allegations has smashed through the sport in recent days, another story with the capacity to wound it has slipped under the radar: the IOC is considering culling five of the 26 track and field events from the Games.
There are biggies in there too, most notably the 10,000m and 200m, along with the triple jump, shot put and one of the race walks. It means the bloodline of great 10,000m Olympic gold medallists – including Emile Zatopek, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Derartu Tule and Tirunesh Dibaba – faces extinction.
The 200m can lay claim to two of the greatest Olympic performances in the past 20 years: Michael Johnson shattering the world record in Atlanta in 1996 and Usain Bolt dipping under it in 2008. That event, too, could soon become an historical artifice.
The shot put and triple jump can point to their heritage: they were part of the first Olympics in 1896. Yet here they are fearing expulsion from the Games and, surely, inevitably, the slow slide to permanent death.
Brian Roe, a senior Australian athletics official, revealed on Thursday the prospect of change is real. “There was a gathering over dinner in Europe recently of senior athletics people who are very significant in influencing policy matters,” he told the Age in Melbourne. “The IOC clearly has a view to reduce the number of those competing in athletics events and options were raised for how to do that.”
That should worry athletics supporters. If the allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia and the son of the IAAF’s president wanting a $5m bribe stick a knife into the sport’s soul, then the potential loss of a chunk of its Olympic programme chops away at its stature.
But athletics should be able to mount some sort of counterattack especially given that for all its problems since Johnson tested positive 26 years ago, it remains Olympics’ blue riband event. Look at the BBC’s viewing figures for London 2012. Seven of the 10 most popular events were athletics, including Mo Farah’s victory in the 10,000m, watched by 17.1 million people, and Usain Bolt’s 200m gold which was seen by 15.4 million. The opening and closing ceremonies, and Tom Daley’s attempt to win individual diving gold, were the only non-athletics sports in the top 10.
The IOC apparently wants Olympic Games to be kept to under 10,000 participants. But if there are cuts to be made it would surely make more sense to start with sports where the Olympics is not the pinnacle. Scrapping men’s football – 16 squads of 18 players – would slice 288 participants, tennis approximately 200.
Swimming, according to the rumour mill, might also be affected by the IOC’s drive for efficiencies and new sports. Here they may be on firmer ground. There are 18 events in the Olympic swimming programme. Do we need the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle? Especially when many swimmers excel in more than one stroke and so are able to accumulate multiple medals more easily than in most sports.
But where do you stop with the bloodletting? You could argue that shooting or archery are niche sports and relics from past centuries, but to some that dangling thread to the past is to be celebrated. Sailing, which has 10 boat classes at the Olympics, is watched by few and understood by even fewer. Only 44 countries have won medals in the sport at the Games and geography and economics mean that number is unlikely to rise. Yet it too has featured since 1896.
Perhaps if administrators are looking for the easy life they should raise qualifying standards for each event, thus ensuring fewer athletes make the Olympics. But that would risk losing the quirky Eric-the-Eel types who add gaiety to the Games.
Of course, tastes, fashions and sports change and the Olympics is no different. The 1900 Games had tug of war and croquet while in 1924 there were art contests, with medals awarded for sculpture, painting and even town planning. No one is suggesting they come back. Athletics, like other sports, must move with the times. It is hard to make a case for race walking, which is not particularly popular and almost impossible to judge.
Yet if it is possible to strip away the politicking and the drug-taking, track and field should have a lot going for it. Unlike so many other Olympic sports, fancy equipment or Nasa science is not always necessary to succeed in track and field.
There is a simplicity and – I hesitate to use this word – a purity to athletics. It is merely how far you can run, jump, or throw.
Given otherworldly genetics, great coaching and hard work almost anything is possible. Athletics remains one area of sport and life where the poor can take on the rich and win.
That’s something everyone can relate to. Certainly the IAAF should be able to sell the sport better both to the IOC and the masses. Unfortunately, given the mess the organisation is in, don’t bank on that happening soon.
