World Athletics President Sebastian Coe was re-elected to a third and final four-year term on Thursday.
The 66-year-old, a two-time Olympic 1500m champion for Britain in 1980 and 1984, stood unopposed in the vote of the World Athletics Congress in Budapest. The vote took place two days ahead of the start of the world championships in Budapest on Saturday.
Coe, who headed the local organizing committee of the 2012 London Olympics, took over the presidency of the then-International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). At the time, the IAAF was dealing with a corruption scandal involving ex-president Lamine Diack.
Coe’s first two mandates led to the creation of the Athletics Integrity Unit, an independent body overseeing anti-doping, and the reinforcement of World Athletics’ stance on Russia. World Athletics suspended Russia over institutional doping in 2015 and then again in 2022 over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“The first four years of my mandate was making sure the ship didn’t sink. We were in a very serious position,” Coe said.
The next four years, he added, were about dealing with issues such as protecting the female category and boosting one-day events.
“The next four years will focus on what is the product that will future-proof the sport for the next 30 years,” he said. He also added that decisions on competition would be data-based and not taken on a presidential whim.
