WADA has released its report on its investigation to the Russian doping crisis, and the results don't make the IAAF look too good. They determined that former IAAF President Lamine Diack not only knew about the positive tests, but was involved in the cover up, even going so far as to blackmailing athletes into paying bribes so that they'd still be able to compete after failing.
I have no idea how guilty Diack is or how far the corruption goes, but it is pretty clear that the IAAF is in major need of reform. And I'm pretty convinced that new President Sebastian Coe will put those reforms in action. He needs to. Because the entire sport is under a microscope right now.
Some people are so convinced that track & field has been so corrupt for so long that they're calling for the IAAF to wipe out all existing world records, which is a completely asinine suggestion. To say that all world records should be reset implies that every single person who ever set a world record is dirty. Not only is that ridiculous, it's really disrespectful.
To completely expunge all existing world records would be unfair to the clean athletes who legitimately set them. I'm not saying that there aren't world records that were set by athletes on PEDs. But eliminating the world records might make some people feel better, but it wouldn't make those performances suddenly disappear. I also know that there are plenty of world records set by athletes who were clean. How is it fair to them to wipe out their legitimate records?
Yelena Isinbayeva might be Russian, but she's getting the short end of the stick here. She's set the world record in the women's pole vault so many times (and been tested so many times) that she's got a right to be angry here (and a right to be angry that she might have to miss out on the Olympics). Paula Radcliffe, the world record holder in the women's marathon, has gone on record as saying that she doesn't think it would be right to take world records away, and I agree with her. Radcliffe admitted that she's somewhat biased on the topic, but her point remains. Why punish those who did it the right way just because some didn't?
Usain Bolt's a freak of nature. There are some that have their suspicions about him, but he's never failed a test and, as far as we can tell, all of his records are legitimate. He could theoretically set them again if they reset world records in 2016, but Mike Powell can't. That memorable night in 1991 where he and Carl Lewis staged that incredible duel, capped by Powell's world record, can never be duplicated. Mike Powell retired 20 years ago. Michael Johnson would lose his world records, too. Nobody's ever said a word about Michael Johnson and steroids. Jonathan Edwards, who's currently a broadcaster for the BBC, is the only person ever to triple jump over 60 feet. Why would you want to make it look like that never happened?
Kenya has come under suspicion recently, too. Does that mean David Rudisha didn't steal the spotlight away from Bolt when he set that remarkable 800 world record in London? Again, I have no idea if Rudisha's clean. But I have no reason to believe he's not. It might be naive, but I prefer to give athletes the benefit of the doubt.
Besides, this isn't the first time a sport has seen its record book tainted. For years, the world record list in women's swimming was dominated by East Germans, who set those marks while they were a part of the state-run doping system in the 1980s. What did FINA do about that? Nothing. And you know how many of those world records still stand? None! It took a long time for those records to come off the books, but eventually they all did (even if they were broken during the year-and-a-half "Suit Era" when swimmers were literally wearing rubber in the water).
A compromise has been suggested, which is almost as stupid as erasing all existing records. There's a British journalist who wants to change the rules entirely so that every event is new, thus creating a second set of "new" records while not touching the "old" ones. (In most U.S. high schools and colleges, there already are "old" and "new" records reflecting the change from feet to meters in the 70s.)
So what should the IAAF do about track & field's "tainted" record book? Nothing. Because there's nothing to do. Erasing world records isn't the answer. And it wouldn't clean up the sport. Eliminate doping. The world records will take care of themselves.
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