LONDON (AFP) — Sebastian Coe warned Sunday athletics could be reduced from a sport to the 'entertainment' status of American professional wrestling if it doesn't win the battle to rid the sport of drugs cheats.
"We could end up with a situation like WWE wrestling where everyone knows it is fake and they don't care," Coe, the London 2012 Olympic Games organising committee chairman and vice-president of athletics's world governing body, the IAAF, told BBC Radio Five Live on Sunday.
"We have to hope we can turn it around, otherwise people will vote with their feet."
British middle-distance great Coe, twice the Olympic 1500m champion, is concerned that recent doping controverises, such as the jailing of American sprinter Marion Jones for lying about steroid use and the return to competition of British runner Dwain Chambers after a two-year drugs ban, are discouraging parents from introducing their children to track and field.
"If you are a parent, you have the thoughts and considerations of your children at heart and the thought a child is entering a sport that is cavalier about performance-enhancing drugs will see people voting with their feet and finding a sport they are comfortable with. We must not be in that position.
"I want to have the standard (ban) at four because I don't think two is enough. I don't think it's a big enough deterrent."
The recent selection of sprinter Chambers to compete for Great Britain in the 60 metres at next month's World Indoor Championships re-opened the question of the correct length of punishment for drugs cheats.
UK Athletics selectors insisted they had no choice but to pick Chambers, whom they said they didn't want in the team, after his victory over the distance in a trial race in Sheffield, northern England, or face an expensive legal challenge where they would be accused of ignoring IAAF rules.
Chambers's potential selection for August's Beijing Olympics is controlled not by UK Athletics but by the British Olympic Association.
At present, a BOA bye-law designed to punish drugs cheats means Chambers has a lifetime ban from representing Britain at any Olympic Games.
However, Chambers is thought to be considering a legal challenge to the bye-law, which he would have to overturn if he was to be allowed to compete in July's combined British Olympic trials and UK Championship in Birmingham, central England.
In the meantime Chambers faces an uncertain financial future after promoter Rajne Soderberg, whose Euromeetings Group runs 51 of athletics's leading events across the continent, said the Londoner would be barred this season from taking part in any competition staged by his organisation.
"Soderbergh understands the anxiety of the crowd, questioning that what they are watching is legitimate," said Coe. "I think it is perfectly reasonable for independent meet promoters to take a tough line on it."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
