2010 World Athletics Gala Logo (© IAAF.org)
Monte CarloI am pleased to use this opportunity once again to celebrate the best athletes of the year, to look back on the year as a whole, the successes and challenges we have faced and also to what next year promises for our sport.
There was no global outdoor World championship or Olympic Games in 2010 BUT it was still an exceptionally busy and important year:
- Six IAAF World Athletics Series competitions
- The first Youth Olympic Games
- A new one-day competition system headed by Samsung Diamond League
But before any of these major events got underway, the year began with questions raised about the financial integrity of the IAAF especially that the association was living above its income and that we would be bankrupt by 2015.
Nearly a year later I am delighted to confirm all questions have been robustly addressed and I’m pleased to report have already been successfully tackled.
We took a hard look at our income and costs and implemented a prudent budget and some careful restructuring to reduce costs significantly. The important point is that we did this without damaging the IAAF’s core business or projects which count as an investment in our future.
Now I am happy to report that the IAAF will have a better balance of income and expenditure and, for the foreseeable future, never less than 50 million dollars in capital reserves.
I should stress that despite the cutbacks we insisted to retain the present level of prize money for our competitions and that was achieved, and in fact with the introduction of a Hammer Throw Challenge this year the overall amount of prize money increased in 2010.
Earlier this year, the small city of Moncton in Canada, took the World Junior Championships to their hearts and their dedication was matched by performances of close to 1500 athletes.
It’s easy to forget that after the senior World Championships which biennially attract over 200 member federations, the World Juniors is the IAAF’s second largest competition with 163 Member Federations participating in Moncton.
The international importance of these competitions to the IAAF and their host nations was underlined in Moncton by the attendance of the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. And yesterday the visit of the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Borys Kolesnikov, who came to Monaco with 15 journalists, signalled the sporting credentials of the 2013 World Youth Championships which were awarded to Ukraine.
Looking to next year, Daegu will be the pinnacle of the year’s competition programme and our two World Athletes of the Year whose names we will reveal in the next few minutes will surely delight us with their brilliance. The World Champs return to Europe in 2013 when Moscow are hosts and we return to Asia and Beijing’s marvellous Bird’s Nest in 2015.
This sequence matches the IAAF’s development policy, ensuring a strong sport in our traditional areas while promoting athletics’ growth in new markets.
Another essential for the successful development of athletics is the re-structuring of the one-day competition circuit. In 2010 we launched a new two tier structure composed of the Samsung Diamond League and the World Challenge meetings. Within a few months of the birth of the new Diamond League, we were able to persuade our partner Samsung, to increase its investment in the sport and become title sponsor. It proved that athletics is still seen as an attractive, vibrant, dynamically successful sport.
It is an optimistic view and as we approach our Centenary in 2012, I firmly believe that the IAAF and our sport are fit and ready for the exciting challenges ahead.
Lamine Diack
IAAF President
There was no global outdoor World championship or Olympic Games in 2010 BUT it was still an exceptionally busy and important year:
- Six IAAF World Athletics Series competitions
- The first Youth Olympic Games
- A new one-day competition system headed by Samsung Diamond League
But before any of these major events got underway, the year began with questions raised about the financial integrity of the IAAF especially that the association was living above its income and that we would be bankrupt by 2015.
Nearly a year later I am delighted to confirm all questions have been robustly addressed and I’m pleased to report have already been successfully tackled.
We took a hard look at our income and costs and implemented a prudent budget and some careful restructuring to reduce costs significantly. The important point is that we did this without damaging the IAAF’s core business or projects which count as an investment in our future.
Now I am happy to report that the IAAF will have a better balance of income and expenditure and, for the foreseeable future, never less than 50 million dollars in capital reserves.
I should stress that despite the cutbacks we insisted to retain the present level of prize money for our competitions and that was achieved, and in fact with the introduction of a Hammer Throw Challenge this year the overall amount of prize money increased in 2010.
Earlier this year, the small city of Moncton in Canada, took the World Junior Championships to their hearts and their dedication was matched by performances of close to 1500 athletes.
It’s easy to forget that after the senior World Championships which biennially attract over 200 member federations, the World Juniors is the IAAF’s second largest competition with 163 Member Federations participating in Moncton.
The international importance of these competitions to the IAAF and their host nations was underlined in Moncton by the attendance of the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. And yesterday the visit of the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Borys Kolesnikov, who came to Monaco with 15 journalists, signalled the sporting credentials of the 2013 World Youth Championships which were awarded to Ukraine.
Looking to next year, Daegu will be the pinnacle of the year’s competition programme and our two World Athletes of the Year whose names we will reveal in the next few minutes will surely delight us with their brilliance. The World Champs return to Europe in 2013 when Moscow are hosts and we return to Asia and Beijing’s marvellous Bird’s Nest in 2015.
This sequence matches the IAAF’s development policy, ensuring a strong sport in our traditional areas while promoting athletics’ growth in new markets.
Another essential for the successful development of athletics is the re-structuring of the one-day competition circuit. In 2010 we launched a new two tier structure composed of the Samsung Diamond League and the World Challenge meetings. Within a few months of the birth of the new Diamond League, we were able to persuade our partner Samsung, to increase its investment in the sport and become title sponsor. It proved that athletics is still seen as an attractive, vibrant, dynamically successful sport.
It is an optimistic view and as we approach our Centenary in 2012, I firmly believe that the IAAF and our sport are fit and ready for the exciting challenges ahead.
Lamine Diack
IAAF President
