International athletics needs stronger legal weapons to tackle doping cheats, pole vault legend Sergey Bubka said Wednesday as he launched his campaign for the IAAF presidency against Britain’s Sebastian Coe.
The 51-year-old Ukrainian also said that athletics should consider events with men and women competing against each other, but insisted the sport must be defended from cuts for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as new sports press for places.
Bubka was part of the International Olympic Committee athletes commission that a decade ago started pressing for coaches and other staff around athletes to be punished for doping offences.
Bubka has called doping one of the biggest dangers to 21st century sport. But he said legal restrictions had held back efforts to impose the punishments that athletes wanted.
“It was a very very complicated issue because from a legal point of view you would like to do many more sanctions, you would like to do more punishment.”
But Buka told a video press conference from Ukraine that this had always created legal and human rights issues.
“We need to work together, we need to study legally how we can strengthen our position, in which way we can put sanctions, if we need to put sanctions on a national federation which violates,” he said in answer to a question on whether Russia should face special action over a widespread doping scandal to hit is sports.
“Who is cheating will be punished, no exception for cheaters,” Bubka said, vowing “zero tolerance” if successful in the election.
But the six-time world pole vault champion said tougher sanctions need “deep study.” Many federations are just introducing four year bans for drug cheats and legal challenges are expected.
— Men-women races —
Coe, Bubka’s British rival for the IAAF presidency that will be decided at a congress in Beijing in August, has said Russia’s athletics federation must be helped to combat doping rather than isolated.
Bubka released a manifesto that included a promise of providing a synthetic track for every country that does not have one and building closer ties with business to increase International Association of Athletics Federation revenues.
Like Coe, Bubka said that athletics must find new ways to increase its attraction, especially among young people.
He promised “the most intensive review of international athletics” that would make proposals to an extraordinary congress. This could include changes to the flagship world championships.
Bubka said the IAAF should even consider men and women competing against each other as well as staging athletics in shopping malls and other new venues.
“Mixed gender competition — this area may have many opportunities and we must move to this direction.”
He highlighted mixed gender races and contests already held in some Caribbean countries.
Bubka is already a vice president of the IOC which is looking at ways to cut some Olympic events to bring in new sports at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
The Ukrainian said athletics had to make itself more attractive and work with the IOC to keep its place as “the number one Olympic sport”.
“It is universal and it is a unique sport and the (IOC) should maintain our events and our disciplines in the Olympic programme and I believe in collaboration we will always protect the position and role of our sport.”