Athletics needs more head-to-head rivalries to reach younger fans who have switched off from a sport that has become boring, according to IAAF president Sebastian Coe.
The sport had been “irreparably damaged” by the corruption and doping scandals that have overshadowed the early months of his tenure, Coe added in a BBC programme entitled “Can Seb Coe Save Athletics?” broadcast yesterday.
Just as important as regaining trust was revamping a schedule that for most of the year meant there was no top-quality track-and-field action to watch, he added.
“There isn’t enough athletics, we kid ourselves but there is not enough,” former Olympic champion Coe said. “We go from September through to May where frankly there is not much to be talking about or writing about; we have to remedy that.
“We have to extend the season into climates where you can compete and we have to develop those markets and make sure the athletes go head to head much more often.”
While tennis enjoys rivalries such as those between Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal, and football has Barcelona and Bayern Munich vying for superiority, athletics struggles for the same appeal.
Coe himself enjoyed a fierce rivalry on the track with fellow Briton Steve Ovett in the early 1980s and their races over 800 and 1,500 metres generated huge crowds and television audiences.
“We have agents and managers who at the start of the season are saying: ‘Our guy is going to have a quiet year this year.’
“It’s like Barcelona selling season tickets and saying Lionel Messi will only play one in every three or four games,” Coe said.
“Usain Bolt is a genius but what we have to do at the IAAF is to make sure people know as much and are excited about the athletes like (New Zealand shot-putter) Valerie Adams who are extraordinary athletes too.”
The format of the world championships, which will be in London next year, needed to change, he said.
“Has what we are watching changed dramatically since we were competing? Yes, in little ways,” he said.
“But people were prepared back in 1983 to sit through nine or 10 days of a world championships. They are not going to do that now.”