adminLONDON. — The corruption scandal that has rocked athletics is worse than the one that has plunged soccer body FIFA into crisis because it punished clean athletes, four-times Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson said yesterday.
“With athletics, if you think about the victims, it is absolutely worse,” the 400 metres world record holder told BBC radio.
“The victims here are those (clean) athletes. They never had the opportunity to stand on the podium and they should have,” added the American sprinter.
An independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has stated in a damning report that “corruption was embedded” at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
The report found that a clique run by former IAAF president Lamine Diack covered up organised doping and blackmailed athletes while senior officials looked the other way. — Reuters.
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