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World Athletics creates fund to support athletes during the pandemic.
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) April 28, 2020
World Athletics (WA) and the International Athletics Foundation (IAF), worked together to create create a fund of $500,000 (£400,000/€459,000) to help athletes through the financial hardship caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fund was established in 1986 to support charities in the sport of athletics and was founded by Prince Albert II of Monaco. The IAF is redirecting resources from its budgets for 2020 and 2021 to assist athletes.
Sebastian Coe, World Athletics president, also chairs the IAF. He said, “the fund will help athletes who have lost income over the past few months due to the suspension of international competition.”
He will chair a working group that will consider applications submitted through the WA’s Associations that are situated in six different areas globally.
The athletics calendar has been decimated for the foreseeable future.
Currently, there are 3,165,233 Covid-19 cases globally. So far, 219,513 people have died from the virus, while 976,073 have recovered.
