Coe Re-elected For Third And Final Term As World Athletics President

[InsidetheGames] Sebastian Coe was re-elected as World Athletics President for a third and final term today, August 17, at the 54th World Athletics Congress in Budapest.

Britain’s double Olympic 1500 metres gold medallist, first elected in 2015, stood unopposed.

The 66-year-old polled 192 of the 195 votes with three abstaining – 98.5 per cent.

Coe thanked delegates for re-electing him.

“We have a lot of unfinished work to do … let’s bring this baby home,” he told them.

The election was overseen by World Athletics’ senior vice-president Sergey Bubka, Ukraine’s 1988 Olympic pole vault gold medallist and six-time world champion, who Coe had beaten when first elected to head the International Federation at Beijing in 2015. 

It was Bubka’s last act before stepping down after 22-years on the ruling Council of the governing body, as insidethegames reported yesterday following criticism of his links with Russia.

Coe’s first two terms in office since succeeding the now disgraced Lamine Diack saw him having to clear up the corruption left by his predecessor and tackling the sport’s drug problem by setting up the Athletics Integrity Unit, which has become a blueprint for other organisations. 

Russia has been a dominant issue for Coe having banned them shortly after his election following evidence of state-sponsored doping.

They were only readmitted to World Athletics earlier this year, but remain out in the cold following Vladimir Putin’s invasion in February 2022 of Ukraine, which Coe has condemned more vocally than any other International Federation.  

Coe, however, may not complete this final term as there is growing support for him to stand to replace Thomas Bach as International Olympic Committee President when his term ends in 2025.

If Coe should succeed, then he will step down from World Athletics.