Elton Tucker, Assistant Sport Editor
Lord Sebastian Coe .... From a personal perspective I can think of few things that damage the ethos and the philosophy of sport more than people taking drugs in order to enhance their performance and frankly, in simple terms, to cheat. - Peta Gaye Clahar/Staff Photographer
LORD SEBASTIAN Coe has been to the pinnacle of his sport. As a middle-distance run- ner he won the Olympic 1500 metres gold twice, in 1980 and 1984. At those same Games he also pocketed silver in the 800 metres, the event many considered to be his best.
During a long career which lasted more than 15 years, Coe set eight outdoor and three indoor world records.
His most memorable world-record performances came in 1981. He broke the mile record twice that summer, clocking 3:48.53 in Zurich, then eclipsing that mark in Brussels with 3:47.33. He then smashed the world record for 800m crossing the line in 1:41.73 at a meet in Florence, Italy. This mark remained on the books until 1997 when it was first tied, then broken by Denmark's Wilson Kipketer. Kipketer still holds that record, 1:41.11, set on August 24, 1997.
Now, as a 51-year-old administrator, Coe, who retired from competitive athletics in 1990 is giving a lot back, not only to his sport but to the entire Olympic movement.
He was head of the London bid to host the 2012 Olympics. Following the successful conclusion of that bid he was named chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Games.
Coe, who made a two-day visit to Jamaica last week to speak at Wednesday night's annual fund-raising dinner of the Salvation Army, is confident that London is on the right track as far as the 2012 Games are concerned.
"We are four years away and counting every day," he said during the shooting of a Gleaner video podcast on Wednesday afternoon.
clean bill of health
He added: "We had the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in town the other day and they gave us a good, clean bill of health, but I also know that this is a complex project and we have to make every day count, but we are making good progress."
He admitted that getting the Games was hard work but his committee was clear in what it wanted to achieve.
"There were moments when it was tough to make the case, but I think we were always very clear in London that we were bidding for 16 days of Olympic and Paralympic sport at the very highest level," Coe said.
"But we also wanted the Games to be used to regenerate a very poor part of east London and to encourage more young people to take up sport. Also to showcase the creativity, diversity and the tolerance of London and the United Kingdom," he said.
"So we wanted to use the Games to change lives, change attitudes and inspire people to do things they would not normally do."
The former British Member of Parliament said medals won by the United Kingdom in 2012 should serve as an inspiration for the young.
Every medal is a role model
"We want medals and we want big British moments, but the reason I am so keen to get medals is not because I want to finish second or first or 20th on a medals table. It's because every medal has to be a converter for 10,000 more people to take up sport. Every medal is a role model and every role model we want to use as a way of getting more people excited by what they achieve.
"So for us it is very, very important that we do get medals and there is more funding going into elite level sport than probably there has ever been, but we also need to make sure that we do not forget the participation side as you need healthy grassroots in all your sports."
In a era when top-level athletes are testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, Coe, a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), said drug-taking was one of the biggest issues facing the sport.
drugs
"From a personal perspective I can think of few things that damage the ethos and the philosophy of sport more than people taking drugs in order to enhance their performance and frankly, in simple terms, to cheat.
"Of course, we need to be tough and to have punishment that is proportionate to the damage that's being done," he said.
He added that the IAAF is moving to increase bans from two to four years for first offenders, but he said more needed to be done.
"We also need to understand the mentality of some of those pressures (which athletes face) ... whether they are individual pressures, whether they are brought to bear by coaches, by doctors or by unscrupulous scientists.
"The athlete has, of course, to be responsible for what they consume, but I would like to know a little bit more about the hinterland around the athlete when those decisions are being made."
Boycotts
Coe also hit out strongly against sports boycotts. The two Olympic Games in which he competed were victims of boycotts. He said the right of the athlete to compete should not be undermined.
"I dislike sports boycotts immensely because they never actually achieve what they set out to do. Sport is often chosen because it is the cheapest of the options. Governments rarely ask other organisations - businesses, the cultural community to shoulder some of that burden.
Sport is high profile and often thought of by politicians as the first resort and although sport and politics have always been intertwined ... we should never use sport in the frontline of politics. Sport can do a great deal to bring communities together, it can help in conflicts, it can help locally in challenging communities but it should not be the frontline of politics. You can't ask sports to do what the United Nations fails to do."
aware of ja's history
As a student of the sport in which he has achieved a great deal, Coe was 'hugely aware' of Jamaica's rich history in track and field.
"You could not come up through my sport without knowing the history of Jamaica which first competed in the Olympics in 1948. Arthur Wint, Herb McKenley - gold and silver straight away. The 1952 relay team is still talked about as one of the great 4x400m teams. Then, in my own career, I competed on the same track as people like Donald Quarrie, Merlene Ottey, Deon Hemmings, Grace Jackson. So I know of the most extraordinary talent that has come from these shores."
As chairman of the organising committee for 2012, Coe will be aiming to make it a truly British Games.
"I think every Games has to be individual. You want to be able to tap into things that other Games have done to make it a great experience for competitors and we should not be ashamed of doing that.
"If a Games has really understood the nature of how we get people engaged or you have changed the format for television production or you have done something differently we should never be ashamed of doing the same thing.
"But I think the London Games will need to reflect London and the United Kingdom and we will."
Feedback: elton.tucker@gleanerjm.com
