Thomas Bach: Diack brought Athletics "into the abyss", from EME News (source: AP)

Lamine Diack, photo by PhotoRun.net

FRANKFURT (GER): IOC President Thomas Bach criticised former IAAF President Lamine Diack for bringing athletics “into the abyss”, reports AP. “It is really incomprehensible that the president of an international federation demands money from athletes to manipulate results of doping tests. That is really a look into the abyss,” he said.

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Editor’s note: The abyss gets deeper and deeper. The sport Diack purported to love, he has left seriously injured. The issue that I have is this: common sense would suggest that the extortion was known only at the highest levels of the Diack group. The more people who know, the more there is the chance for a leak, for someone to get jealous and spill the proverbial beans.

The sleepy IAAF that was founded in 1912 in Stockholm existed until the mid 1970s. By the time of Primo Nebiolo, the Federation and the world of sport changed. Under Nebiolo, there was huge growth and finally, money. Money did corrupt.

Under Diack, the corruption became its own industry.

The sport he was elected to protect, Lamine Diack has used for his retirement fund.

That is more than a journey into the abyss.

It is a sin against the sport.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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