Global Athlete supports the Global Throwing community, the USATF Athlete Advisory Committee and the Athletics Association headed by its founder Christian Taylor, with its call for World Athletics to reverse its decision to drop disciplines from Diamond League.
20 November 2019: Global Athlete has today pledged its full support to the Global Throwing community, the United States of America Track and Field (USATF) Athletes Advisory Committee and the Athletics Association’s call for World Athletics (formerly known as IAAF) to reverse its decision to drop key disciplines from its Diamond League Series.
As the custodian of athletics, World Athletics must not pretend to be an athlete-first organization while simultaneously cutting events from its flagship series without meaningful athlete engagement. The fact that World Athletics has justified these changes citing that “we have listened to our broadcasters and fans and made changes” is mind-boggling. The fact that World Athletics has not listened to its number one group of constituents - the athletes - is yet another sign of outdated governance. Athletes are the very individuals that fill the stadiums and bring revenues to the sport, so it goes without saying that they surely should be meaningfully engaged.
“Athletes are not fools, and we join the athletics community in saying that they should not be treated as such. To indicate that World Athletics ‘want athletes to be at the centre of decision-making, which is why we will have two athletes as full voting member of our Council’ once again shows how out of touch the sport is with its people. The World Athletics Council is comprised of 26 members and athletes only fill two places. Simple math proves that when a vote is tabled, athletes really don’t have a meaningful or an equal say at all,” said the Global Athlete Start-Up Group.
“Time and time again, we have stated that athletes want to be a part of the solution – this is not a ‘them and us’ situation, this is a case of collaboration. If World Athletics would have taken the time to engage athletes, you would be surprised how a collective athlete engagement can work together, positively, to overcome these crises and help grow the sport even more,” the group added.
World Athletics has in recent times repaired its reputation and been more in touch with athletes and fans, as was clear through the strong, principled stance the organization took in the Russian doping crisis and with the establishment of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU). Global Athlete encourages World Athletics not to regress into yesterday’s problems, but to embrace this new era of athletes-first decision making and governance.
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