News03 Aug 2005


Szewinska is elected as third woman on IAAF Council

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Irena Szewinska of Poland is elected to the IAAF Council (© Getty Images)

Continuing a career that seemed unlikely after her retirement from the sport in 1980, Polish athletics legend Irena Szewinska was elected as the third woman to the IAAF Council during the first session of the 45th IAAF Congress in Helsinki this morning.

“Athletics is my life,” said Szewinska, who collected seven medals in five Olympic Games, three of them gold. “I spent 20 years as an athlete. When I finished my sports career, I didn’t think I would become an official. But the next year I was elected to the Polish Athletic Association (PZLA), and I just started step-by-step.”

Those steps in her improbable career eventually included council membership in the European Athletics Association (EAA) in 1995, ascending to the presidency of the PZLA in 1997, and membership to the International Olympic Committee in 1998. During her post-athletic career, Szewinska has seen numerous changes in the sport, much of it in her native Poland where the sport has progressed significantly on her watch.

“During those years, athletics in Poland has really grown. We’ve had many international events, on the European level as well as the world level.”

A ten-time World record holder in the sprints - at 100m, 200m and 400m - Szewinska said her chief priority will be continuing the work she began when she first became involved with the IAAF women’s committee in 1984: focusing on women’s roles in the sport.

“This year will be 21 years since I was elected to the IAAF Women’s Committee. For me, it’s very important the issues of women in athletics. The main aim is to have more women to become involved as athletes, then to have more women coaches, more women officials. Overall, to support women in athletics.”

Second among her priorities, she said, is the sport’s fight against doping.

“Especially at this time,” she said, “this is very important.”

Since her retirement after the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Szewinska said that while the problem of doping had grown, she is also “satisfied that the fight against doping has grown. Our federation is the leading federation in this fight. The fight against doping is getting stronger and stronger.”

Another important goal she said will be promotion of the sport, particularly to today’s busy younger generations.

“Among the younger generation, we now have a situation where there are not only so many sports, but so many other things - TV, the internet, computer games. So it’s very important to bring into athletics more young athletes.”


Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

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