Lamine Diack (7 June 1933 – 3 December 2021) was a Senegalese businessman, sports administrator, and athlete. He was president of the

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

(IAAF) from 1999 to 2015. He was the subject of numerous investigations into corruption during his tenure as president. He was also a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

(IOC) from 1999 to 2013, then an honorary member from 2014 to 2015, and the chairman of the National Water Company "Société Nationale des Eaux" of Senegal (SONES) from 1995 to 2001. He had been under house arrest from November 2015, and his trial in France started in June 2020. On 16 September 2020 Diack, his son Papa Massata Diack, the head of the IAAF anti-doping department Gabriel Dolle, and other persons were given prison sentences for their part in a coverup of

doping in Russia Systematic doping of Russian athletes has resulted in 48 Olympic medals stripped from Russia (and Russian associated teams), four times the number of the next highest, and more than 30% of the global total. Russia has the most competitors who h ...

Athlete

Diack was a champion

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

er in the late 1950s, winning the event at the 1958 French Athletics Championships and holding the French/

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

n record from 1957 to 1960.

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)

Diack became president of the

(IAAF) on 8 November 1999, and was re-elected for his fourth and final four-year term on 16 October 2011. He was also a member of the

(IOC).

Corruption

In 2011 the ethics committee of the IOC conducted a year long investigation into claims that Diack had received bribes from the bankrupt sports marketing company

International Sport and Leisure International Sport and Leisure (ISL) was a Swiss sports marketing company that was closely bound to FIFA. History ISL was established by former Adidas boss Horst Dassler, and was associated with FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and t ...

(ISL). Diack received three payments in 1993 from ISL at a time when the company was in negotiations with the IAAF to sign a marketing contract. The IOC described Diack as having "placed himself in a conflict of interest situation". Diack claimed that he received the money from supporters after his house burned down. Diack was warned for his behaviour, with the fact that he was not a member of IOC at the time of the wrongdoing considered a mitigating factor. In November 2015, Diack and several other top IAAF officials were arrested in France and charged with "passive corruption" and money laundering by French financial prosecutors. Diack was placed under

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

in Paris and Gabriel Dollé, the former anti-doping manager at the IAAF, was taken into custody in Nice. The IOC provisionally suspended Diack, and he resigned his position as an IOC Honorary Member. In 2016, the

World Anti-Doping Agency The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA; french: Agence mondiale antidopage, AMA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate, and monitor the fight against drugs in sports. The agency's key ...

reported that with his influence, Diack was able to install two of his sons and a friend into positions that exerted influence over the IAAF. The report says that Lamine Diack "was responsible for organizing and enabling the conspiracy and corruption that took place in the IAAF." In 2018, Diack was handed an additional charge of "breach of trust" by French prosecutors. On 18 June 2020, the trial of Diack and five other people, including his son, concluded. Diack was sentenced to jail for four years, two of them suspended.

Honours

He was awarded with the Grand-Cordon of the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

of Japan in 2007.

Death

Diack died on 3 December 2021, at the age of 88.

References

External links

IAAF profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diack, Lamine 1933 births 2021 deaths Senegalese male long jumpers International Olympic Committee members Athletics (track and field) administrators Sports executives and administrators Recipients of the Olympic Order Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun Presidents of the International Association of Athletics Federations Sportspeople convicted of crimes Sportspeople from Dakar Mayors of Dakar Senegal national football team managers Senegalese football managers