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Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics (WA) claims that reputation will not protect athletes from doping bans.
“The AIU is not always going to be on everybody’s Christmas card list but I do think that it has restored some confidence that we’ve got an organisation that will fearlessly and ruthlessly weed out the cheats.”
When speaking to the British media, he added, “I like to think that it has shown the athletes that we’re not fearful of reputation. Where there is an infraction we’re not fearful of going, “Oh well that’s quite a big name.”
Coe also feels that athletes have a better chance of being caught doping during the Tokyo Olympic Games happening next summer.
American sprinter Christian Coleman is an example of top-level athletes that have been sanctioned by the AIU. A number of athletes including Kenyans have been banned for whereabouts failures, Athlete Biological Passport anomolies, and positive doping tests. Currently, Russia is under a complete ban, while Kenya has nearly 60 athletes ineligible to compete for various reasons.
