In the late 1950s, he became a champion in the long jump, winning the event at the 1958 French Athletics Championships and holding the French West African record from 1957 to 1960. Born in 1933 in Senegal, Lamine Diack is also a businessman, a sports administrator and has served as the president of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) form 1999 to 2015.
Lamine Diack, was also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1999 to 2013, and an honorary member from 2014 to 2015. During his management time in the IAAF, he played a pivotal role in making the long distance running popular in the international arena, where particularly, the East African long distance runners of Ethiopia and Kenya shined in the distance.
However, the former IAAF president faces corruption charges over claims that Diack had received bribes from the bankrupt sports marketing company, International Sport and Leisure (ISL). On November 1, 2015, Diack and several other top IAAF officials were arrested in France and are being investigated over allegations for deferring sanctions against Russia doping scheme.
In this regard, Diack was investigated by the French authority for four years and has been under house arrest in Paris, since November 2015. The long awaited corruption trial of Diack has been delayed until June, after new documents were presented in the last minute, by his son Papa Massata Diack. However, according to the documents sent to The Reporter stated Procedural defects of the accusing party.
“The IAAF is a private law association of Monaco and its head office is in the Principality of Monaco. The charges did not occur in France and no French legal person or individual was damaged by President Lamine Diack and his son,” The document reads.
The document states that as Lamine Diack was arrested on a Sunday morning while holding a Senegalese diplomatic passport, the OCLIFF and his investigator did not even wait to consult the Embassy of Senegal in Paris and the Ministry of Business French Foreigners, before triggering the preliminary police investigation.
Meanwhile, the World Anti-Doping Agency has self-assigned itself the right to investigate the attributions of the Olympic Games and the World Championships and sponsorship contracts.
Among the charges the former IAAF president is accused of is of 23 Russian athletes maid payments to an offshore account belonging to his son Papa Massata Diack.
However, he argued that “This is false and I never received cash or transfer payments from any Russia citizen to conceal doping cases. I justified myself before the Court of Arbitration for Sport between the 16th and the 19th of November 2016,” the document states.
Elsewhere, the document further explains the controversy of Corruption charges for Rio Olympic Games, though it stated that Rio’s bid has not suffered in any way. They won by 66 votes against 32. Further, it said the principles of the rotation of continents, an unwritten rule that the organization of the Games changes from continent to continent: Sydney 2000, Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008, London in 2012, and then Rio in 2016. That “rule” was applied by the voting members.
